Using a Nest Camera System after about 5 months

[Jamie-NYC]

Sharing my opinion on using Nest Cameras after about 5 months for my apartment. To start, I have mixed feelings about Nest cameras as they are feature-rich yet quality-poor. I have a a Nest Wired Doorbell and three wired indoor Nest Cams, and paid $60 for a year of Nest Aware cloud service. The cameras have performed with medium quality, most notably the doorbell camera is low-quality. I receive email notifications for doorbell-captured movement; since I live in a building the hallway can have brisk activity -- images are always blurry and face recognition is very poor. For my three indoor cameras, the cameras struggle switching from regular vision to infrared mode at dusk and dawn to the point where you can noticeably observe the cameras clicking back and forth several times during these times of day, and recorded video quality is never sharp. Notifications also have endless false alarms as shadows and shifts in light are constantly being recorded and flagged as movement. The Nest Aware subscription is disappointing as well; recalling recorded video is time consuming, specifically failing to load and playback about 50% of the time. Facial recognition software fails mostly at about 70%, and viewing live feeds from camera to app fail at about 30%, while also showing substantial lag and often failing (going dark or offline) while watching live feeds. The lack of a computer app and a quality web-based app to view in a browser are also disappointing, as the only way I've learned to view the doorbell from my MacBook Pro is via Nest.com, and the indoor cameras require [a workaround hack] e.g., Bluestacks Android emulator for Mac to run, which is unreliable and presents additional security vulnerabilities. I'm also concerned by Google's privacy policy which reserves the rights to share my stored video with other entities at their discretion. It is especially disappointing to contend with Google's lack of support to integrate their Nest products for management in a single app, as my Nest Doorbell requires the Nest app for management (accessible for browser viewing), while the Nest Indoor cams use Google Home App (only available as a mobile device app).

I originally chose Google's Nest products because I believed staying in the Google product ecosystem would offer good quality and simplify management at an affordable cost, but I've been let down by the products' quality and reliability. As I plan my next security project for a larger space (a house), I now have a baseline of requirements to scrutinize against competing products. My current Nest system "works", but it does not work well.

[MplsCustomer]

@Jamie-NYC 

For browser access to live streaming from your cameras, you can try https://home.google/com; it's in a "Preview" state right now.

[Jamie-NYC]

[Jamie-NYC]

I checked this new "preview" / beta site a few times today - it doesn't work.

[MplsCustomer]

@Jamie-NYC 

Lately, we've been getting a spinning blue circle on each camera's feed for 10-20 seconds, then all the feeds blank out for a second, then "Retry" displays in the middle of each feed, and then each camera's feed blanks out momentarily every 10-20 seconds or so. I guess it's a work in progress.

[MplsCustomer]

@Jamie-NYC 

The link works oddly when accessed from this forum.  Click on the Go to Google Home button in the upper right corner.

[Jamie-NYC]

Tried that, still a fail.

[EmersonB]

Hello Jamie-NYC,

Thanks for getting back to us and I understand that you're having troubles with regards to your Nest doorbell and Nest cameras. To confirm, What is the speed of your internet? How many Nest devices are connected to your Nest devices? How far are they from your Wifi router?

Looking forward to your response.

Regards,

Emerson

[EmersonB]

Hi Jamie-NYC,

How's it going with your Nest doorbell and Nest cameras? We would appreciate it if you could share with us the information I'm asking above. Let us know if you have more questions in mind.

Regards,
Emerson

[janthadeus]

Hey there,

I just wanted to jump in here to make sure that you saw our response. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours.

Thanks for the help here, MplsCustomer, Brad and Emerson.

Best,

JT

[Brad]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear that you have ran into trouble, thank you, @MplsCustomer for your helpful information you have shared. Please let me know if you need more help.

Best regards,

Brad

[EmersonB]

Hello folks,

@Jamie-NYC how's it going with your Nest camera? I'm dropping by to ensure that everything is covered here. If you have other questions and concerns, feel free to let me know.

I appreciate the help, Brad and MplsCustomer.

Thanks,
Emerson

[EmersonB]

Hey Jamie-NYC,

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, I would be happy to keep it open. If there's more we can do, just let me know.

Regards,
Emerson

[Jamie-NYC]

Hello Community Specialists …and thanks for checking in!

I appreciate the follow up questions and the optimistic tone -- however, to be clear, none of the problems I shared have been resolved. In fact, the quality of the service is worse than I initially realized.

First, to answer a few questions about my setup:

I have a Tmobile 5G wireless router. A Google Speed Test today Monday 12/2/2022 showed my home internet connection as: 64.3 Mbps download / 33.7 Mbps upload (Very fast). My router is 20 feet away from my Nest Wired Doorbell and the farthest of 3 Nest Wired Indoor Cams.

Now to follow up on my original complaint.

This weekend I conducted another test and verified the Doorbell's failure to function as expected. The test: I confirmed their was activity occurring in view of my Doorbell and then watched the live feed on my iPhone with the Google Home and Nest Apps -- at the time of this activity the "live" feed show NO activity, and yet a minute later I received an email from Nest with a snapshot of recorded activity. This confirmed my greatest concern and my suspicion of the big fail for this Doorbell, which is that the camera works, but the data feed to the apps is so poor it is unreliable.

Today, just before writing this post, I conducted the same test and replicated the failure.

[Brad]

Hey there,

Sorry to hear you haven't had the best experience with us. We’re always looking for ways to improve, and appreciate your feedback. You can send it at any time using your devices, following the steps found here. We'll be locking this thread at this time, but if you need assistance with another concern, please feel free to start a new thread.

Best regards,
Brad