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Old Nest Aware and new Nest Aware in one Home?

Retty
Community Member

I have a first generation Nest Aware subscription which I want to keep.

I've discovered that my new Nest cameras aren't compatible with this subscription and nor are they compatible with the Nest app. This is very odd and very bad product design and so I will probably return the cameras.

As a last resort though I am trying to clarify whether or not I can have a first gen Nest Aware subscription and a new generation Nest Aware subscription within the same Home on the Google Home app.

I think I need to set up the new cameras using another Google account (a different account to the email address associated with the first gen Nest Aware subscription).

But is it possible to have two subscriptions (1st and 2nd gen) in the same Home?

I can't believe how difficult Google has made this process. All the cameras as called "Nest" but it's necessary to use two different apps and two different subscription services - or migrate to a Google account instead of a Nest account for the 1st gen cameras and lose features in the process!

15 REPLIES 15

MplsCustomer
Bronze
Bronze

@Retty 

The newer Nest Aware and Nest Aware Plus subscriptions cover ALL cameras and doorbells in the same Google Nest "home/structure", so there would be no cost advantage to keeping your 1st Gen Nest Aware subscription.

And yes, it's a pain to have to use 2 apps!

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9681538

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9233159

https://store.google.com/product/nest_aware?hl=en-US

I have 2 new cameras. A Nest Battery (Outside) and a Nest Wired (Indoor). Neither one is showing up on home.nest.com so I can save the video clips.  How do I fix this?  I've already deleted them and readded them.

@Paramediccurt 

Unfortunately, Google Nest decided that the new Google Nest cameras and doorbells released starting in 2021 would work only in the Google Home app and NOT in the Google Nest app or on the home.nest.com website. You'll have to use the Google Home app to download clips.

Thank you.

The problem I've encountered now is that I can't buy a new version Nest Aware subscription unless I migrate my Nest account to a Google account.

I can't believe that Google would create such a counter intuitive, confusing and feature reducing system.

I don't want to migrate my Nest account because I'll lose features that I use.

There doesn't seem to be any way of using Nest Aware with the new Nest cameras and the old cameras unless I migrate my old Nest account to a Google account.

I think that I will return the cameras to Google and get my money back.

This really is a very poorly designed ecosystem and the need to use two apps is a great example of this lack of good design.

janthadeus
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi there,

 

Retty, we're sad to see you go. We hope we can make it up to you in the future. We're always here to help if you ever change your mind.

 

Paramediccurt, saving and downloading your video clips is done in the Google Home app. 2nd gen Nest cameras and doorbells aren’t available in the Nest app and web app (https://goo.gle/2qjvVSU).

 

Best,

JT

janthadeus
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey Paramediccurt,

 

It's me again. I want to check if you still need help. Don't hesitate to reach back if you do.

 

Thanks,

JT

Retty
Community Member

Unfortunately the new Nest camera service is very bad - it provides a dramatically degraded user experience in every way.

 

I am unable to download user selected video clips (can only download automatically generated events).

I can't scrub through the video timeline - it is jerky, buggy and crashes/freezes the whole app.

There are no dog barking alerts (a great feature removed).

It is a very bad service that Google has provided - software and services that are far worse in design and performance than the previous service.

It is pretty deplorable that Google removed a wonderful older Nest service and forced this badly designed, degraded and buggy mess on end users. I had no idea that I couldn't use the old Nest app and I've been shocked by the shoddy product that Google has rolled out.

I think the programmers responsible for this buggy and degraded mess should be ashamed of their coding skills.

 

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

@Retty

 

We just sent out a recent update, have you checked to make sure that your devices and apps are all up to date? I know it helped with others experiencing similar concerns with clips. Let me know if you're still seeing this. 

 

Best regards,

Brad

Retty
Community Member

I have the most recent version of Google Home on iOS - version 2.63.110

The photos below show problems that are representative of my experience using the Google Home app. There's no real time video scrubbing. I have no problems with my older cameras using the Nest app.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Dk7vr8_ABu-k0GEqd8cK1Zvg3591AIK8/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12pyzpOiUL5rzeHe7IOYMdvCftzL8X0Tr/view?usp=drivesdk

janthadeus
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey there,

 

I’m sorry for the delay. Thanks for sharing those screenshots. Let’s sort this out — a few questions: do you have an Android or iPhone? Were there any changes to your Wi-Fi network? Also, is the camera connected to a 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz Wi-Fi network?

 

Here are some troubleshooting steps you can try:

 

  1. Close all the apps running in the background of your phone, reopen the Google Home app. Then, check your event history again. 
  2. At the highest video quality setting, your cameras can use a large chunk of the internet connection to stream video. Slower internet service might not be able to keep up. Check your internet speed here: https://goo.gle/2JaUmYI. The page would show your download speed then click “Show more info” to check your upload speed. Have a look at this article for your guide: Internet bandwidth and speed requirements for Nest cameras.
  3. Open the Home app Google Home app.
  4. Touch and hold your device's tile.
  5. At the top right, tap Settings .
  6. Choose Video.
  7. Under “Video quality,” choose Max or High.
    • High settings uses less bandwidth.
    • Max settings uses more bandwidth.
  8. Restart your phone, turn it off for 60 seconds then turn it on.
  9. If you have a dual band Wi-Fi frequency switch your connection to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to improve your connection.

Let me know how it goes.

 

Best,

JT

Retty
Community Member

Thank you.

The phone is an iPhone. Both the camera and the iPhone were connected to a 5 GHz network.

The internet speed seems to be okay: 60Mbps.

The video quality on the camera is set to "high".

I've connected the phone to a 2.4 GHz service and there's no difference - it is still very difficult to scrub through the video by dragging the timeline.

I have no problem with the old Nest app which is connected to three Nest cameras. It is possible to scrub through the video on those cameras using the old Nest app to find small details of movement.

The problem I'm having seems to be a problem with the Google Home app video playback. 

Unlike the Nest app, the Google Home app has a very long same day timeline. It takes a long time to scroll through the timeline from, say, 11pm to 9am. On the Nest app it takes a few seconds but on the Google Home app it takes probably 30 seconds or more. The Google Home app seems to be trying to load the whole day's video timeline rather than taking a more intelligent approach of calibrating the amount of video loaded depending upon the speed on the scrubbing.

janthadeus
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hello Retty,

 

I appreciate all your efforts here. Let’s further check this — could you reset your camera to its default settings and let me know if that helps?

 

Looking forward to your response.

 

Best,

JT

janthadeus
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey there,

 

I just wanted to follow up to see if you still need our help. Please let us know as we would be happy to answer any questions you may have

 

Best regards,

JT

janthadeus
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi there,

 

Just checking in to make sure that you saw my response. I'll be locking this thread if I won't hear back from you again in 24 hours. Should that happen, feel free to create a new one if you have more questions or have other concerns in the future.

 

Thanks,

JT

janthadeus
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks,

 

Checking in — I hope MplsCustomer’s response answered your questions. Let us know if there’s anything else.
 

I appreciate the help here, MplsCustomer.

 

Thanks,

JT