Solved: Nest devices on PC

[haz]

Moderator edit: Subject updated for clarity and findability.

We have a nest thermostat and wired doorbell which my wife controls with her android phone.  I don't use my phone, and I want to view/control these from my laptop.  Reading here I see it may be possible if I "migrate" from Nest App control to Google web app.  But I assume this will end my wife's phone control (? which we don't want to do).  Is there anyway to do what I want?

[MplsCustomer]

@haz 

If you have NOT migrated from a Nest Account to a Google Account, and you have a Nest Hello Doorbell, whcih is installed in the Google Nest app , you can see and control your doorbell on the home.nest.com website on your laptop.

[haz]

Thanks for the quick reply.   I can see the live feed from home.google.com (but "Talk and Listen is not available for Nest cameras that have not been transferred from the Nest app to the Google Home app.").  My doorbell is a wired (2nd gen).  I read HelIo doorbell is 1st gen...does it matter?  Just installed the Nest app on my laptop which shows my thermostat (at least it displays the temp) but not my doorbell and grays it out if I go to install.  Any ideas?

[EmptyNester]

Hello Haz,  I'm an end user like you.  Yes, it is super frustrating that google.com.com ONLY allows for live viewing of any of the Google Nest cameras including both gen 1 and gen 2.   We have been waiting and waiting and waiting for about a year now and so far it still has not appeared.   For that reason I keep buying the old Gen 1 cameras from eBay sellers so I can continue to use only the NEST APP on my phone and then also using home.nest.com from my PC so I can view live and recorded footage. Another thing that home.nest.com has is a fantastic design for saving and sharing clips.  home.google.com doesn't have any kind of clip creation or sharing features.   I hope and pray that if Google brings that function to home.google.com that they do it exactly the same way because it is absolutely brilliant in its design.

[MplsCustomer]

@haz 

I'm confused. If you have a 2nd gen Google Nest Doorbell, which gets installed in the Google Home app, it CANNOT be accessed from the Google Nest app.

There is no current ability to transfer from the Google Nest app to the Google Home app (except for the limited ability to transfer a 1st gen indoor camera to the "Public Preview" version of the Google Home app: https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Blog/Nest-Cam-Indoor-1st-gen-expanded-support-rolling-out-in-...), but you can migrate a Nest Account to a Google Account. However, if you already have a 2nd gen Google Nest Doorbell installed in the Google Home app, then you cannot migrate to the Google Account you're using for that purpose, and will need to use a workaround; see this Google Nest Help topic: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9297676.

I don't think there's any way to install the Google Nest app on a laptop, though you can access the home.nest.com website through your browser, which would show a Nest Thermostat, but would NOT show a 2nd gen Google Nest Doorbell, which can be accessed only through the Google Home app and on the home.google.com website, where, if you select your 2nd gen doorbell on the website, you should then see a microphone with a slash through it in the lower left corner.

If I had to guess, since you said you hadn't migrated, that your Nest Thermostat is installed in the Google Nest app, and your 2nd gen Google Nest Doorbell is installed in the Google Home app, and if you want to get them both in the same Google Nest "home/structure", you'll need to use the workaround specified under "Error message: Google Account is already linked with another Nest account" in the link I shared above.

Confused? Yeah, Google Nest has one foot firmly in the Google Nest app and the other firmly in the Google Home app.

[haz · Accepted solution]

OK, thanks for these replies which make me look deeper into the details.  I have found out 1) our setup does use google home to control our doorbell. (Who the heck remembers what they did in original install?).  Apparently we don't use Nest app at all. 2) I pulled my phone out of it's hiding place, checked the google home app and saw that I had some things turned off (like mic and recording and I can't remember what else) 3) I then went to home.google,com on my Win11 laptop and found I now could turn on audio, and I could have two-way conversation with someone at the door.   This is what I wanted, so success!

I won't try to analyze or comment further since I'm happy to stay ignorant about the other issues and details about Google/Nest app stuff.