No alerts on mobile phone upon Nest Protect alarm

[AristoMoggie]

Have a number of Nest Protect devices and they are pretty sensitive and work great when smoke is detected (oven too long on, fire place door not closed....).

The local alarm is great, but, if you are not at home there does not seem to be any way to get an alarm on your phone at all which seems a bit strange. It should switch your camera's on but if you do not get a proper notification what is the point in that? 
The testing is supposed to provide feedback on the phone as well, I've only heard the tiniest of 2 beeps on the PC or Phone that you press the test on, if that is all you hear from the monthly test then it's pretty dumb as those beeps are easy to miss (in now over a year of use of the units I've never heard a notification on the phone it is done it's test).

Am I missing some setup issue here or is it another missed opportunity from Google?

[CarlsonLeeann]

I’m wondering about this as well. Purchased a Nest specifically to know if there’s ever a fire when I’m not home. I remember seeing an away and home mode on the Google Home side of the app. Still trying to mess around with it to get it going. In my mind, the test should push a test notification to your phone as well but doesn’t.  If anyone has some insight here, that would be greatly appreciated. 

[AristoMoggie]

Indeed, I did find some settings since then but yet have to see the first notification........

[BozzyDad]

The advertising showed an alert to a person away from home 

Similar request wanting to know what type of alert should I expect to my phone?

[AristoMoggie]

Yes, and despite all the setting changes I get nothing on my phone still. 

[AristoMoggie]

Anybody in Google that can briefly let the community know what you need to do to get alerts on the mobile phone?

[JCat]

Same issue here. Someone tried to break in but realised that he was captured on camera and left. The camera did the job but the one bip notification on my phone did not wake me up. I'm really upset at google for not testing their products in real life. It actually does not serve the purpose! I subscribed to nest thinking that there could be a premium feature but no, same thing here...

Anyone found a way to get a real notification on a smart phone? For example change the one bip notification into a phone ring? 

Thanks

[vai0l0]

it's in the marketing material, I can't understand why it does not work

[CarlsonLeeann]

I purchased this specifically because it was in the marketing material. Otherwise this is a $150 smoke detector that I could have just bought a $40 Kiddie alarm. Without this phone alert feature, they’re not much different… sure I can hush it from my phone but that doesn’t justify the price. 

[GregR]

I would like to know or request that they consider not only a basic phone alert, but if there's a fire, wouldn't it be a good idea to strobe the Flashlight on the phone as an emergency signal? This would be very helpful to the hearing impaired.

[AristoMoggie]

As long as it can be set on or off as personal preference that would be fine, but, I first like to see that bloody qlarm to actually work, what ever I do, it does not alert.

[Shufflez]

With recent versions of Nest-app I only ever get a (smoke in kitchen) notification when I already grab my phone and manually open the app to silence the alarm.

I'm afraid this happened when they started integrating Nest with Home. @User123456 please look into this! Centralization is great, critical (alert) feature removal isn't. 

[AristoMoggie]

Agree, Google should concentrate on integrating Nest into Google Home and get rid of Nest. Now 2 programs working, not, side by side is dumb. I also get no alerts on the Nest app either actually..........

[GregR]

This is not looking good for my client.  I have an individual that is hearing impaired so the family wanted to get alerts on their phone in case of emergency and these posts are now telling me this cannot be done.  I was under the impression that this was a feature when I purchased two of these things.  Why is google not responding?

[CarlsonLeeann]

I hear you. This is definitely frustrating. I doubt we’ll get any direct response from Google as this is simply a community forum. Maybe consider reaching out directly to the company through a tech support chat or email? I haven’t found the time to do this yet. Would love an answer and fix though :S

[Shufflez]

Better me than you 😉 Just spend 140 minutes (really not kidding) with Google/Nest chat support at 2 levels. Checking notification settings ("not the app settings, your phone settings"), reinstalling apps, even resetting all app preferences (**bleep**, could have just done factory reset, why not). Didn't seem to matter that it happens on 2 different Pixel devices. Now escalated to engineering, hope to get response in a working day.

[CarlsonLeeann]

Nice!! Eagerly looking forward to a positive response!! If they need testers afterward, sign me up! Nest Protect (2nd Gen) with iPhone 11 running iOS 15.3. 

[JCat]

Hi, thanks for taking the time to get some answers on this issue. Looking forward to any feedback from Google. I guess it's only about creating a push notification that triggers phone ring instead of a message notification. If this is too hard for Google... 

[Shufflez]

Alerts on phone were a feature! It worked for years. Even when abroad I knew if the toaster had been left on (smoke alert). Since Nest=>Home it has gone downhill. Google limping on two minds (not sure if that translates). Maybe Protect doesnt generate enough data for Google to feed from so they just abandon it? Would have loved integration with the plethora of Nest speakers and Hubs throughout the house too...

For your client you may want to look into IFTTT, works great and does things Google won't/can't.
https://ifttt.com/nest_protect

[mattmurphy]

I've just put in a feature request to Google as there is no feature to provide a greater alert than that you were get from receiving a text or email.  This is not doing enough to 'protect' in my opinion.  A better alert feature could literally save lives.

Can you imagine if you were out but the kids might be at home and all you get is a tiny beep?  I would want my phone to do everything in it's power to get my attention!

[Eo74]

Not only do I not get notifications anymore, it doesn't show up in my app history. I'm also unable to silence the alarm from my phone. (I have experimental cooks for teenagers, so...yeah). 

[TechVT]

Just bought two of these and found the same problem on iOS…any updates in the last four weeks? 

[AristoMoggie]

No update from my side, I can not get it to work (and I wonder when Google is going to Integrate them I to Home as well instead of Nest.

[WOODEL]

Nest/Google Doorbell is worthless - I can't find any setting that make the doorbell ring/notifiy me on my iPhone.  The Doorbell has to be active on two apps - Nest and Google Home - WHAT A MESS!

[Dale123]

Taking a look on Googles product details. There's two types of alarm heads up and emergency. It says that only emergency alarms will trigger a phone notification. Not tested but might be worth exploring 

[JCat]

It simply sends a notification, no enough to wake someone up... 

[Eo74]

It doesn't send any notification at all. It did for a while, but hasn't the last couple years. I can't find anything to reset in the settings. 

[AristoMoggie]

Well, I simply don't get any whatever I try. I am now actually paying monthly as well but since not being at home I can't set it on fire to see if I now get alerts or not. Just wish Google would get their act together, there are good products, but they simply do not think like simple customers, what would they actually basically need......

[Dale123]

So just tried it out (don't ask how as wouldn't recommend). My phone had the notifications blocked for some reason (Android), my wife (Iphone) got the emergency notification from the Nest app (little underwhelming notification ping but did work). I don't have Home only Nest (we are Alexa) and the Nest app. Hope this helps.

[AristoMoggie]

I think it's all on on the tablet and phone, but then again, I get no info from SMS messages either despite it being on. Wish it was just easy..........

[Weert12345]

Same problem here.  No notifications after smoke detection on IOS.

[hipphop]

Same. Hugely concerning. I used to get phone alerts. We had a live incident tonight with our babysitter and i did not get alerts from either Nest Protects

[Johnny5thesim]

This is still an issue. I’ve spent tons of time with google support, who is useless and unable to even answer basic questions about the expected capabilities of the products they support. After the last round of support, they told me I need to start a small fire or burn something to test it….which sets it off. But it still doesn’t notify me. One thing that’s now clear to me. My recommendation. DO NOT spend money with google. 

[NonameponyW]

I can't believe they sell this literal crap. No alarms on my phone. Bought like 7 units. What a scheme.

[Nezboid]

I just bought a Nest Protect entirely for the reason of receiving alerts on my iPhone in the event of a fire, because I’m often in the attic where I wouldn’t know there’s a fire and would have little chance of escape if there was one. 
I entirely expected this to be a feature and am flabbergasted it isn’t, and feel a little stupid for not checking beforehand. 
surely this is an easy feature for Google to add though? 
why I’m earth wouldn’t they??

[tokenmeup]

Welcome to the club. I'm still waiting too:) and it's been a looooooong time.

[Eo74]

@Nezboid It used to work. It stopped suddenly at some point. However, in your case, I would get another smoke alarm to put in the attic. When one goes off, they all go off and before the crazy loud alarm goes off, there is a voice warning that also tells you what room the smoke is coming from if you have it set up to do so. That feature has been perfectly reliable and you won't be able to miss it like you could a notification on a phone.

[tokenmeup]

I tried to reply but my messages keep on being deleted 

[Nezboid]

Actually, have found notifications work quite well on Apple Watch, if you have one. They’re a bit subtle but it does vibrate like a text message, so you notice it

[Jeff_Cherer]

Yup, no reasonable way to test that the sms, ping, email or whatever notification is working. Very disappointed.