Sound detection (heard events) ever coming to newer Nest cameras?

[mango_pudding]

Today I just found out that old Nest cameras were able to detect person talking, dog barking ,or any other sound, these event types showed up in my filter lists even though I don't have any camera that supports them. I really hope that we can get this feature enabled at some point, because:

1. This would be an important feature for many users (including me). I bought my cameras mainly to record evidence of my loud neighbors, some have constantly barking dogs, some would party (talking and dancing) till 3am, outside. Personally I don't even need to categorize the sounds, just being able to record any sound that's not white noise, it would make my evidence collection process much easier.
2. The absence of this feature makes no sense technologically. Since the newer cameras are able to detect smoke detector sound, it should be able to detect and log any sound event. Sure, maybe they are now processing sound locally (so processing power may be impaired) for privacy, but it should still be easy if we just focus on detecting any sound without trying to categorize them.

I hope this reaches some actual humans from the Nest team.

[Badattitude]

What cameras do you have...Gen 1 or Gen 2? I'm guessing Gen 2

On Gen 1, yes you could select what sounds you wanted or didn't want. On Gen 2, they record everything. So  if you have either of these, you still can record your loud neighbors.

[Ronnieboy]

Hi, does that mean nest cam 2nd gen records all sound all the time? I'm trying to catch the extremely loud random bangs me neighbours are terrorising me with from the flat above me in the middle of the night. Your help would be so very appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[mango_pudding]

I have the Nest Cam (outdoor or indoor, battery), which I believe is Gen 2? As far as I can tell from the Google Home app itself and various threads in the forum, it does not record any sound events other than smoke detector alarms.

Of course I have 24/7 video on, which gives me 24/7 audio as well, so it does record everything in that sense. However, it does not create any sound event when there's a sound without video event. And without a decibel level indicator or something like that in the video history interface, it'd be super difficult to find and save those sounds.

Or am I completely mistaken, and there is in fact a way to have the camera record all sound events?

[EmersonB]

Hi everyone,
 
I'm dropping by to ensure that everything is covered here. Were you able to perform the steps suggested above? We'd be glad to hear from you — We'd like to make sure everything is working.
 
I appreciate the help, Badattitude.

Regards,
Emerson

[mango_pudding]

Thanks for chiming in, but no, my question has not been answered. Please see my earlier reply for more details.

To be clear, I'm not seeking help on how to use the product, I'm actually requesting a feature.

[Badattitude]

@Ronnieboy & @mango_pudding 

With Gen 2 cameras, if you go to settings for that camera in Google Home,>>on your phone...not PC<< you will see Audio. Click on it and you will see On or Off. Select On and all sounds will be recorded. Also be sure the Audio for your phone is turned on and the volume is all the way up. To verify, go to Live view and you should hear something/anything within the range for that camera. Have someone make some noise near the camera to verify.

[Ronnieboy]

Hi, many thanks for the reply, Audio is on and it does record the sound of video events but doesn't make an event for sound only, if there is no motion at the same time. So how do I find that bit of recording of the sound made, because it doesn't seem to mark it as an event, so the recorded history is unavailable to me to access to download and share, with my landlord for example. I have nest aware but still have same problem. thank you. 

[Ronnieboy]

Thank you for trying to help but I knew this already. What I asked, (meant) was; I want my camera to give me access to the 24/7 recorded video, not just the recorded 'event' which only start to record when there is motion detected and stop soon after. My neighbours make LOUD noises in the middle of the night intentionally to keep me awake. I want to record it whilst the video shows me motionless in bed, proving it is not me making the noise. Unfortunately I have discovered AFTER BUYING NESTCAM AND PAYING FOR NEST AWARE that this facility (ability to access, view, download, save and share bits of the 24/7 recording) is only possible with a NEST AWARE PLUS subscription which is NOT AVAILABLE IN THE UK, where I live.

[Badattitude]

I have Nest Aware Plus, so that may make a difference. If I scroll through the past live recordings...not and actual event....I can hear audio at every point I stop. In other words...its 7:30am right now, so if I scroll back from the current time to say 2am, I can hear audio background noise at each time point I stop.

edited to add: I have both Gen 1 & 2 cameras. With my phone, on Gen 1 there is a sound 'event' recorded based on my settings. So I can't just scroll like Gen 2. But if I use a PC for the Gen 1 cameras, I can scroll through the past live recordings. And again...all sounds are recorded/heard at any point in time I stop.

[Ronnieboy]

Aha! Sounds like that's what I need then? As I don't seem to have access to history if not marked as an 'event'. I am out right now but will have a try when I get back home. Thanks very much for your help 👌

[Ronnieboy]

Hi, It seems you do need nest aware PLUS to get access to all video & audio recorded, not just saved 'events' . Problem is it doesn't seem I can get it in the UK? Something they failed to mention before buying on amazon. Are you in the UK?

[Badattitude]

No, I'm in the US

[Ronnieboy]

That's it then. Thank you for helping me get to the bottom of this problem. An appropriate review has been duly left on Amazon! Thanks again. Ronnie 

[mango_pudding]

I think the discussion went in a different direction because @Ronnieboy has a different problem than what I have. I'm aware of everything you said about the Gen 2 camera. I do have the 24/7 subscription and I know that I can hear the the sound when I scroll through recording history.

My issue is with the lack of events. Without a heard event, it's extremely difficult to find when a sound occurred. Unlike the video, there's no preview for sound, to check if there's a sound at any point of time in history, I had to scroll there, wait for a second for the video to start streaming, and wait more to hopefully find the barking sound. Imagine trying to find dozens of barking events over a course of a night, especially when you don't know exactly when the barking happened.

Adding to that, I don't think there's a way to save a video clip that's not an event. But that's a separate issue, so i digress.

[mango_pudding · Accepted solution]

I'd like to follow up on this, as my question is still unanswered. I believe this is a valid feature request (see my earlier reply), and even if it's not viable (whether it's technical challenges or privacy concerns), customers deserve an answer on the reason behind this regression in features.

I'd appreciate that the community specialists/admins can actually read my posts instead of simply replying with boilerplate "follow ups" without even reading what's going on in the thread. 

[Brad]

@mango_pudding 

Community Specialists are not privy to Google's choices to move away from that previous feature. We will not be able to answer your question directly for you, as we simply don't know. The best thing you can do, is share your feature request in the app. That information is looked at, but no one in the forum has access to that information. 

Best regards,

Brad

[EmersonB]

Hello everybody,

We wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any concerns or questions from here, as we would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

I appreciate the help, Brad.
 
Regards,
Emerson

[EmersonB]

Hi everyone,

Just one quick final check in here since activity has slowed down. We'll be locking the thread in the next 24 hours, but if you still need help, we would be happy to keep it open. If there's more we can do, just let us know.

Best,
Emerson