Checked this last weekend on 2 devices: my Wi-Fi tablet and my mothers' smartphone.
The following I checked for both:
1. "Make sure your Nest app and mobile device software are up-to-date."
Done.
Google Play Store does not show any updates for the Google Home App or the Nest App.
I also checked the device (android): no new updates available.
2. "Ensure your device's notification settings are configured correctly."
Done.
See screenshots: (for w/e reason i cannot attach screenshots here, so they are at my google drive)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17R9IKoG9aXytLRJjgawik42O9C4uVDUx/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G2cEtW7RSmL59jZ1-Sd18Ol34FwcZXng/view?usp=sharing
3. "Verify that your device is not in airplane mode and has a strong cellular and Wi-Fi connection. Weak signals can delay notifications. If that is the case, restart your device; it will reset cell and Wi-Fi connections and might fix the problem."
Done.
No device is using airplane mode and was 5 meters next to the FRITZ!Box 5590.
The internet connection is permanent, 50 mbit glasfiber.
4. "Verify that your phone or tablet's settings do not have any blocked notifications."
Done.
Notification history:
there are no notifications snoozed or similar. There are the notifications i received (ofc).
Clear notifications:
there are no "silent notifications" to "clear".
Snooze notifications:
the option is off. The article suggest me to turn it on which I do not find helping to solve the problem.
Reply, archive, expand & more:
I do not find helping to solve the problem.
Control emergency broadcast notifications:
"Wireless emergency alerts" are on at the smartphone, and not available on the Wi-Fi tablet.
Change notifications for your device:
"Notifications on lock screen" is on. "Show conversation" is active for almost all apps, incl. Google Home and Nest.
Turn notifications on or off for certain apps:
"Notifications > App settings" shows the Nest App in the "Most recent" list and the switch is ON.
In the "All apps" list I can find the Google Home App and the switch is ON.
Turn notification dots on or off:
I do not find helping to solve the problem.
Choose if notifications interrupt you or stay silent:
Google Home App and Nest App is set to "Alerting" (in german "Ton zulassen").
Also, both apps have the notification setting ON.
Control how notifications show on your phone's lock screen:
This is a duplicate check. We did this already at "Change notifications for your device" above.
5. "If you're still unable to receive notifications, try checking on a friend or family member's device. With their permission, install the Nest app and sign in to your account to see if notifications are working. Remember to sign out of your account on their device when finished."
We DO receive notifications, but only the "end of alarm" (in german "Rauch zieht ab") notification.
Also, I just did all those checks on 2 different devices.
6. Additional checks I did for both apps at "Settings > Apps":
Permissions (in german "Berechtigungen") :
Allowed: Notifications, Devices nearby,
Stop app if not active (in german "App-Aktivität bei Nichtnutzung stoppen"): OFF
Remove permissions for unused apps (in german "Berechtigungen für ungenutzte App entfernen"): OFF
Battery: not restricted
After all those checks I started the tests.
Test 1:
First Google Protect starts alarming.
I waited until the alarm goes off on all Google Protect devices.
I waited like 1 min longer but NO alarm has been sent to the smartphone or tablet.
I pushed the button on the Google Protect device to mute the alarm.
After a while the smartphone and the tablet receive the "end of alarm" (in german "Rauch zieht ab") notification.
I searched in the smartphone for any options that look like notifications.
Found one, cant remember what it was. But turned it back after the test.
Test 2:
First Google Protect starts alarming.
I waited until the alarm goes off on all Google Protect devices.
I waited like 1 min longer but NO alarm has been sent to the smartphone or tablet.
I pushed the button on the Google Protect device to mute the alarm.
After a while the smartphone and the tablet receive the "end of alarm" (in german "Rauch zieht ab") notification.
Now I remembered that I have a pihole running.
I looked up the recently blocked DNS requests and found 2.
I disabled the pihole completely, waited 5 min and started another test.
Test 3: BUGGED
First Google Protect starts "alarming",
BUT it now says (german) "Stummgeschaltet" (engl. "muted") INSTEAD of the alarm message. NO alarm sound were made.
I waited ... but still bugged.
I pushed the mute button and THEN THE ALARM GOES OFF.
EDIT: I just remember I kept holding the mute button until (i think) it restarted.
Test 4:
First Google Protect starts "alarming",
I waited until the alarm goes off on all Google Protect devices.
After 1-2 minutes I received a message on both devices: "Vorsicht: Rauch - Küche" (engl. "Attention: Smoke - Kitchen") with the same VERY LOW recognizable sound we get on the end of alarm notification.
I pushed the button on the Google Protect device to mute the alarm.
After a while the smartphone and the tablet receive the "end of alarm" (in german "Rauch zieht ab") notification.
So what now?
Conclusion:
BUGGED in that price range:
I'm VERY upset about the bugged "alarm". If this was a real fire then there would have been no alarm sound!
I'm sure this is "just a bug", but I paid a lot for those devices! I bought 4, planned to buy more. But THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE in that price range. Pleas fix this.
DNS:
I looked up the recently blocked DNS requests in the pihole and found 2.
(Cannot remember the domains atm and I'm not at my parents home right now.)
One was for tracking, and the other unknown to me. I allowed the unknown manually.
Questions:
Q1: can you PLEASE change the notification alarm on the App so that we get an ALARMING SOUND, instead of the "ding ding"? PLEASE! For security reasons.
Q2: can you PLEASE improve the time to alarm on devices? 1-2 minutes are pretty long in case of a fire!
Q3: do the Google Protect update automatically? I don't think I saw an option to update manually.
Q4: can you please provide me the domains that are used, so I can manually whitelist them?
Q5: can you in the future please notify in the instructions to make sure those domains are not blocked? Or even better add a check if those domains are reachable (ping). And if not warn in the app?
At the end I wanna say:
I really love the Google Protect (Hardware). And i know others do too. They are expensive, but actually worth the money.
The problem is that the time I already invested to get them warning my family in case of a fire is HUGE.
The hardware it self: TOP!
The APP(s): ok, BUT (now it comes) the time to understand (I still dont) that you have to install and "link"(?) 2 Apps (Google Home and Nest) to get it working on mobile devices ... and then it still does not work (because of w/e, f.e. DNS without a check/warning) ... is not acceptable in that price range.
