Link to Google’s announcement

It was strange a few months ago when Google announced that Nest Aware was getting another price increase with no new features. I saw a lot of people in the Reddit groups saying they were bailing on Google/Nest. I looked at some other options but nothing looked good enough to be worth the up front investment to buy all new cameras. If another company had the right types of cameras and 24/7 recording, only then would consideration begin.

In the Google Home/Nest ecosystem I have a bunch of cameras – including a doorbell camera, outdoor camera, and a few in the house. I have a few Nest Home Hubs that are exclusively used as digital picture frames and the one in the kitchen is the only one with the microphone enabled. I only talk to it for one reason, to set timers. I use Apple as my main home setup, I don’t often talk to Siri but it works for turning lights on and off when I ask.

The migration from the Nest app to Google Home has not been good. I avoided moving any cameras over to Google Home until earlier this year when my old Nest Doorbell was finally giving out (when someone would ring the doorbell, it would turn off, apparently that means an internal battery has died, after watching some videos on how “easy” it is to fix, it was time for a new doorbell). Even now having some cameras required to be in the Google Home app, I have two in the Nest app because it is still better. My two biggest complaints: when opening the Google Home app, it takes over the audio on my phone, so whatever I’m listening to stops playing, and while they’ve added the ability to tap to skip forward or back 15 seconds, it doesn’t work on the live video.

Speaking of devices dying. Besides the doorbell this year, I’ve had a Nest Home Hub screen die and a Nest IQ Indoor camera stop working.

The new doorbell is tempting, if only because the one I have really reduced the field of view from my original Nest doorbell. I’m glad to have a newer outdoor option. I currently have a Nest IQ Outdoor on the back of the house, not something I’m wanting to swap out often as it was just screwed into the new siding. I wish they would have made one that reused the IQ’s mounting plate.

Third Party cameras are maybe the biggest part of the announcement. Walmart has a $23 camera that is supposed to hook into Google Home just like the Nest cameras. I will be keeping an eye out to see how well that works and what other companies jump on board.

Google Gemini is the other part of the announcement and I’m not sure how much I care. I don’t think it is going to make setting timers any better. I am curious about the camera features such as describing what it sees in a notification. Maybe it can even be smart enough to say that in the backyard the movement is that shadows appeared because the sun came out. Then it can figure out that it shouldn’t bother me with that notification.

In typical Google fashion, I don’t have this year. Will I have it later today? This month? This year? There is no way to know.

I am going to want that doorbell.