So no playback at all without paying?

[Tanquen]

I thought you got a few hours playable events or something? My mom had an incident and with the first gen Nest Hello all I can do is see live video on the Nest website or live video in the Nest app. In the Nest app ONLY there were events for the last few hours but I could not save them or view them. That makes them all but useless with local storage being blocked. All we have is a small event pic of my mom going outside but nothing of the person.

[gilleslibre]

For historical data, of up to 60 days, you need to have a paying subscription to Nest Aware, or Nest Aware plus; otherwise, I think that you can get only up to 3 hours back of video recording. 

[Lance_L]

Hi all,

@Tanquen, thanks for reaching out to the Community. I’m sorry to hear what happened. I’d be happy to help you with your questions.

Standard features and upgraded Nest Aware features are different depending on which camera, speaker, or display you have and which region your home is in. For the Nest Hello doorbell, if there isn’t an active Nest Aware subscription, it won’t have video history. You can check out this handy guide to learn more about what you get with a Nest Aware subscription.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Lance

[Tanquen]

"For the Nest Hello doorbell, if there isn’t an active Nest Aware subscription, it won’t have video history"

There really should be. Just doesn't seem fair to have to pay somebody a fee to see the video of my own camera records using my electricity and my Internet access etc. It's really pretty lame. Especially since other cameras get at least the last 3 hours of events. But then with the new cameras you can't even save a clip of anything that you found, only automatic clips can be saved if they happen to record what you're interested in.

[EdmondB]

Hello Tanquen, 

I understand how important it is to get the recording from your Nest Camera. For the Nest Camera you can still see what happened with 3 hours of free event video history or snapchat of activity if you happen  to have the 1st Generation Nest cameras.  Here is a link to know more about the Event video history and 24/7 video history with Nest Aware subscriptions. 

Let me know if you have additional questions. 

Best
Edmond

[Tanquen]

Yes, as previously stated there is no video history whatsoever for the first gen cameras. The integration of the two different versions of cameras and Google Home versus the Nest app is also very problematic. I'm not sure if that was always the case or not. As it stands, it makes the camera all but useless unless I pay a ransom basically, to see what my cameras recorded. As there is no local storage in the cameras and network storage along with any kind of alternate cloud-based storage is artificially blocked. There's really no reason to block someone from using a local NAS device. Even if you do, pay up to see the video, your own camera records using your electricity and internet, etc. You're limited to events that have been detected. Even if you spend the time to search through the video and find something, there's no way for you to make a clip with the new cameras like you can with the old cameras on the existing Nest app.. It's been 2 years and there's not really been a good upgrade for Google Home camera support versus what Nest already had. 

Just imagine if your Android phone only let you see videos that you recorded with it, If you paid Google to let you see them and then they blocked you from using internal storage or local network storage or another cloud storage provider. I wouldn't be surprised if they're working on it.

[EdmondB]

Hi there, 

We hear you. Our team is working hard to deliver the best experience for our users — we'll take this as feedback, and you can also use this link to share feedback about Google Nest. Keep your eye on the Google Nest Community page for any updates. Please let me know if you have other questions or concerns.

Regards,
Edmond

[KTM990]

It's not a good product or good customer support.  I've been slowly dumping all my google camera's and this no-frills expensive Nest doorbell is next for me.  Opt for a more robust system that you have control over, like a power over ethernet setup.  harder to install, but worth it.  

[Tanquen]

Yeah, it kind of feels like even before the hardware refresh, they decided that they weren't selling enough. It being a few years later with no promised updates and increasing in pricing. Just seems like they really don't care if the doorbells and cameras keep going. I think they also stopped selling the home security items that some folks liked, but I guess they're not selling enough.