Google - Nest Hello Smart Wi-Fi Video Doorbell

I upgraded our home security cameras in 2018 from Drop Cam Pro to Nest Indoor IQ & Outdoor IQ Cameras with Facial Recognition & Familiar Face Alerts. I was thrilled to learn about "Hello", a smart doorbell with the same features when Nest announced it last Fall. It is even better than I had hoped! THE GREAT: 1- Ridiculously SHARP Image! Show this to your friends who own the "other" smart doorbell - and catch their mouth - open disbelief when they see the clear image without the delay! I attached an image captured from my front porch. 2- Facial Recognition works! 3- Familiar Face Alert works! 4- Beautiful integration with Google Home. When anyone presses the doorbell button, all Google Home devices announce "Someone is at the front door!", at the same time their photo appears on your cellphone. Once you enter the guest's name as a Familiar Face on the app, the doorbell will announce them by name at the door! "Hello" even announces the names of multiple guests. 5- Perfect Nest integration with all Nest Cameras. Even shares the Familiar Faces with the master library that includes all Nest IQ Outdoor & Indoor Cameras & pulls faces from that established library & vice versa. 6- Optional Aluminum 15 degree angled wedge allows you to point doorbell away from a wall. See my photos showing this in use & showing the resulting image. 7- Microphone is very sensitive & picks up whispers! 8- Best looking Smart Doorbell on the market. 9- Includes push-on quick connects to simplify installation. 10- Video compression is selectable with 4) settings, 800 to 2,000 Kbps of upload bandwidth. This is a huge benefit: select the highest quality / lowest compression for the best quality image if your WiFi can support the bandwidth. On the other extreme, select the low end (800 Kbps) to use less WiFi bandwidth - or 2 levels in between. Nest IQ Cameras share this great benefit. 11- Easy installation with YouTube Video & photos make this a fun and quick install, whether you have ever installed a doorbell before. 12- Masonry drill bit is included if you need to drill into brick or stone. 13- 1600 X 1200 DPI HD UXGA image, up to 30 Frames / Second, H.264 encoding & HDR. 14- Ultra wide 160 Degree diagonal field of view. Very wide, very high floor to ceiling to see packages on the porch, all clear with an 8X zoom. 15- Speaker quality is sharp and clear. It does not sound like a tin horn. 16- Narrower than most smart doorbells allows placement in tight quarters. Dimensions: 4.6" Tall X 1.7" W X 1.0" Deep. The 1.7" width was a big help for me. See my photos of the installation. 17- Works with any doorbell transformer measuring 10V to 24 V. 18- Brightest IR for Night Vision that really lights up a large area without the extreme red IR used by lesser cameras. These are 850nm infrared LED's, same as on Nest IQ Cameras. 850nm LEDs produce a very slight red glow when operating, which is visible to the human eye. 19- Other Nest products set up "Hello" doorbell for you! They literally do all of the Wi-Fi settings, even the password. It took about 30 seconds for another Nest product to set everything up! 20- The delay that has been an issue with other doorbells can be greatly reduced or even eliminated on "Hello". See point # 10 "Video Compression" in this review. The 4) selectable quality settings can be used to reduce bandwidth requirement, which greatly reduces the "spinning wheel" & makes the visitor pop up faster after a guest rings the doorbell. THE LESS THAN GREAT: Absolutely NONE!! Hello is a Great security & convenience appliance. CONCLUSION: Nest "Hello" raises the bar for Smart Doorbells to a level unattainable by any competitor today & earns my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION!!

If you are looking for a video doorbell, this is the one you need to get. I have used other video doorbells and the NEST HELLO is by far the best one I have ever seen. Installation is extremely easy. Nest Hello needs to be wired in order to stay powered on to deliver 24/7 streaming, so if you don’t have a current wired doorbell, you would have to have the wiring installed by an electrician first. If you have a wired doorbell, chances are it would be compatible with Nest Hello, but the first thing you need to do is make sure. On the Nest website, they have a great compatibility checker and instructions to help you find out if the Hello will work for you. Nest Hello needs to be powered by wires delivering 16- 24 VAC, and at least 10 VA. Once you have confirmed that Hello will work with your wiring, they give you everything in the box to get up and running. If you don’t feel comfortable installing yourself, you can hire a Nest Pro through their website, but honestly installation can be done by anyone that can follow step by step instructions and operate a screwdriver and drill. Nest gives you all the instructions you need, in both a YouTube video and the Nest App. So even if you’re not “handy”, trust me you can install this. The area where my doorbell is, it sits on a piece of trim that’s very narrow and is right next to brick. Nest includes a 15-degree wedge piece that helps mount the doorbell in tight spots and helps improve the camera angle/view when right next to obstructions. The Hello is much narrower than competing doorbells, so you should have an easy time mounting it just about anywhere. I had the doorbell unboxed and installed in about 45 mins. A lot of that time was spent trying to find the breaker the doorbell wiring was on. I also have the Nest Outdoor cam, so I already have the Nest app and account. If you don’t, you need to sign up for a Nest account through the Nest app. It’s super fast and easy. In my app I just needed to click “Add Product” and the app did the rest. Walked me through all the installation instructions, and once it recognized the doorbell, it automatically assigned all my Wi-Fi settings to it. I can’t emphasize how simply it was to install. The video quality is amazing. The video is up to 1600 x 1200 @ 30fps (you can set the video quality to Low/Med/High depending on your preference and bandwidth) and is 4:3 aspect. It is H.264 encoded and has HDR, and has 160 degree field of view. The 4:3 aspect was interesting. I’m used to viewing video through my other cameras at 16:9, but having the 4:3 on the doorbell is perfect. You can see everything. This aspect ratio is perfect for a doorbell camera. I was super impressed with the overall quality of the video. Crystal clear and full of color and sharpness. The night vision is the best I’ve seen on any outdoor camera. The audio is also very clear and bright, and the two way talk works incredibly well. Notifications are instantaneous when someone pushed the button, and if they don’t and only trigger the motion sensor, the notification still comes to the phone super fast, much faster than I’ve experienced with other doorbells and even some outdoor stand alone wifi cameras. And like with their other cameras, the Hello can be configured with trigger zones of activity in front and around the camera field of view, so you can fine tune when you get notified of activity. Familiar faces is a game changer. The doorbell will zoom in on the person’s face ringing your doorbell, and then ask you through the app if you recognize them or not. If you do, you can save that face (the doorbell takes a series of facial images in a burst) and name it, so that the next time that same person comes to the door, the app will let you know who is at the door. It is amazing. And if you have Google smart home products like the Google Home, it will announce who is at the door alongside your doorbell chime. I had been waiting for this doorbell since Google and Nest announced it, and it has not disappointed. It is by far the best video doorbell on the market in my opinion.

I tried a couple other doorbell systems before, but Nest Hello just blew my mind! They really fixed a lot of problems other door bells have. Let's start with installation: Nest web site does have a quick compatibility check tool that you should use to verify your existing door bell is compatible. Nest tells you in the manual that you have to install the supplied "power pack" or "chime connector" next to your chime, however if you have 2 indoor chimes - you'll need to find your door bell transformer and install the connector there. Just make sure you have both wires going to your chimes connected to the "chime connector" as Nest recommends - red wires from the chimes to the dark wire on the connector and white wires from the chimes to the white wire on the "connector", then the other two wires on the connector (transformer side with 2 push-in couplings), red wire to the transformer, white wire to the white wire going to the door bell button, red wire from the door bell button to the other tap of the transformer. Pay attention to the transformer you have, if it's only a 10VA one - I strongly recommend getting 30VA version, it's inexpensive but will guarantee plenty of power for your door bell system even if you have 2 chimes. When it came to the actual physical installation of the door bell - I found that my existing holes I had for the standard NuTone button did actually match Nest Hello's mounting holes perfectly so I did not had to drill into the brick. That was a major install time saving! Can you install Nest Hello if you don't currently have a wired chime? Sure - if you can run a wire to it! Just don't hookup anything to the "chime" side of the "chime connector" and make sure to insulate the leads. Once physical install is complete - follow directions in the app to setup your account, name the door bell, etc. What happens when someone comes to your door? First of all - Nest Hello has a white ring around the button that starts glowing - indicating that person's presense has been noticed and prompting them to push the button. Once the button is pressed - chimes sound instantly in the house (unlike the other door bell system I tried that had a second delay), and within 1-2 seconds you'll get a push notification on your phone/watch/tablet - every device you've got setup for that. There is where the main difference comes into play - push notification from Nest would actually have a short 2 second clip in it clearly showing you the person! (It's not like you have to open up the app and wait 4-5 seconds for the video to come up and by that time they are gone like with the other door bells I had). You would also be given 3 choices of pre-recorded phrases: "We'll be right there", "You can leave it" and "No one can come to the door right now, but we are notified of your visit". If you happen to have a Google Home in your house - it could also announce that "Someone is at the door" or even mention person's name if Nest Hello recognized the person as "familiar face". You still get notified if visitor did not push the button and just walked away as well. Nest Hello does work with the 3rd party apps but would just show up as a regular Nest camera. Overall - it's a very positive experience and I'm finally feel like I have a smart door bell, not something I have to wait 10-15 seconds just to show me my empty porch. Nest Hello's picture quality is very nice and night vision works perfect. With plenty of installation options and a very good app response time - this makes Nest Hello the best door bell system on the market at this time!

Nest hello is an attractive and well made smart doorbell that integrates well with Nest's impressive software ecosystem but has some fundamental issues which limit the usefulness of its core functionality. 1. Hardware and Installation The unit is beautifully made from high quality materials and looks great once mounted. The metal mounting frame with sim-tool style release mechanism is a nice touch that is easy to use. Nest also includes an optional piece that snaps magnetically to the base and allows the doorbell to be mounted at an angle. Nest suggests that this is for cases where the doorbell would otherwise be right next to a wall, but in my experience it is a mandatory addition to get the best view. Nest recommends having somebody from their network of pro installers handle the installation job and their suggestion is worth considering if you're not comfortable with DIY jobs that involve electrical wiring. If you have some electrical experience (for example you have installed a smart light switch) and you have access to a multi-meter, installation should be straightforward unless your doorbell system is not compatible. I had no issues with mine and I suspect that most hard wired doorbells will be OK. If in doubt, you can follow the directions on nest.com to check your system before buying. Overall, I found the installation to be well thought out and well documented. 2. Software Setup With the Nest app installed and a Nest account set up, installation is simple and is guided via the app. In my case, I have Nest Protect smoke detectors and the software was able to use these to relay Wifi information to the doorbell and get it connected. It took two tries, but other than that it was straightforward and handled completely within the Nest app. Once the doorbell is connected to Wifi, the app allows naming the unit (it supports multiple doorbells) and setting up some basic options such as what notifications to send on motion vs. actually ringing the bell, etc. 3. Operation My actual experience in operation was a bit of a mixed bag. Pros: a. The bell lights up as you approach it and the button itself illuminates making it easy to see where to press, even in the dark. b. Notifications to my phone and Google Home device were quick and reliable. c. Two-way audio conversations between my phone and the front door worked OK, although users outside reported that the audio was a little choppy at times. I did not try this outside the home over cell networks. d. I was able to set up email notifications that include a snapshot of the person at the door - a nice touch that makes it easy to check in from any computer, even without the app. Cons: a. The camera struggles with backlit subjects. So if the person standing in front of your door has the sun at their back (or even a reasonably bright overcast sky), making out the face can be an issue. There doesn't seem to be any type of built-in HDR compensation like on some cell phone cameras. b. The field of view is sufficiently narrow that it can be hard to see a person if they're standing right by the door. This is why I think the included angle bracket is essential - you'll have a very hard time seeing somebody standing close to the door without the camera on an angle. Even with this, subjects heads were sometimes cut off. Keep this in mind too when looking at how high or low your existing doorbell is mounted on your door frame as moving that wiring up or down is not a trivial exercise. c. Having a log of even one day of video captures from the bell requires a paid subscription to Nest Aware. I would prefer either a setup where you get a few days of recent images for free, or a way to save the video to local network storage like some basic webcams offer. As best I can tell, the latter is not an option. Without the subscription, you get the email alerts and notifications, but no stored video. d. I was unable to get the "familiar faces" feature to work. The unit recognized people and allowed me to name them (ie. it correctly grouped images of the same person in the app). However, in my case I've yet to have it actually indicated the name of a recognized person when sending doorbell notifications. I assume that this is a software bug that will be worked out. All in all, Nest Hello is a premium looking and feeling product that is well integrated into Nest's ecosystem and provides quick and reliable notifications, but falls short on image quality, field of view, and the requirements for paid subscriptions in order to enable core services. The minor launch software issues will I'm sure be worked out by the Nest team, but I'm concerned that the limitations of the camera itself will be a permanently limiting factor.

First of all, I'd like to express on how much I like this doorbell. This has been my first step into having a smart home and I've loved every second of it so far. I'd STILL recommend this doorbell to anyone outside of the few hiccups I've experienced. Now to the issues I've had. Small disconnects here and there... I have a mesh network at my home and its relatively small home but its hard to believe my home network would have been the issue for a all these disconnected here and there... Second issue... I had a HUGE time trying to get Nest Aware activated on my camera. I WANT TO SPEND MY MONEY, I said out loud as I consistently waited 2-3 days for it to activate before going over to live chat. My cameras subscription would just sit there in pending and would never activate eliminating the possibility of 24/7 recording until this got fixed. Finally after going over to Live chat I was able to get a free 30 days of Nest Aware and it finally was added to my camera on the Nest website. The 3rd and final issue I've had that seems to be the nail in the coffin. I have my night vision set to auto, so anytime it gets dark enough the night vision will switch over automatically. Well, over night when it finally got back to daylight I started noticing issues with the color of my camera feed. It was a Purple Hue all the way across. I assumed that a simple restart would fix the issue. No success. Went ahead and turned off the curcuit it was on to hard reset the Nest Hello. Still no success after a hard reset. Changed quality options and it actually made it change color to a Pink Hue instead of a purple Hue. Did some digging online and people are saying its a mechanical failure due to the IR/Night vision not switching over correctly and staying on. Luckily Nest support has been ever so kind on this situation and I'm hoping to get a replacement. I have geek squad protection on this too so that is also a route I can go, but for the issues I'd still recommend this doorbell. Hopefully this is just a minor case of bad luck and my next one won't have issues. After a few hoops to jump over, the product is still a great product. I just wish I didn't have all these minor annoyances after only owning the product for 2 months.

In the box there were no instructions. You will need to use the Nest app to get directions and watch a video of the install process to get the doorbell and chime connector installed. The box otherwise has everything you will need. You will first need to make sure you have a 10VA transformer wired to your current doorbell. These can be located anywhere in line with the doorbells wiring and mine was in the wall box directly behind my door chime. The install was not difficult but it was time consuming having to go back and forth with the app and video and the install. Once everything was in place and I had power to the doorbell I had to reset my phone because of some issues connecting via Bluetooth with the doorbell but after the reset the doorbell connected quickly and final setup was quick. I like how you get a notice on your phone within seconds of someone pressing the doorbell with a photo to let you know someone is at the door. It also has the ability to notify you if it senses a person standing at the door who does not press the doorbell. The video is clear and covers our entire front porch. The app is easy to use and the video feed is easy to get to and watch. The only problem I ran into was when I tried to log into Nest online to view the feed from my camera. Using Google Chrome there was no issue and I could view the video feed, however I could not view the video using Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer. Where the video should have been was just a loading icon but video never loaded. I tried on several different computers and ran into the same problem with Internet Explorer on each of them. Overall I do like the Hello Nest doorbell, however I’m not thrilled with the subscription service. You get a trial subscription for Nest Aware that lasts 60 days but once that is up you will need to pay to have access to the recorded video. $5 a month gets you access to only 5 days of video history, $10 a month gets you 10 days of history and $30 a month gets you 30 days of video history to access and this is per each individual camera. Compared to other video doorbell manufactures this is very pricy. Just to compare, you can get a Ring doorbell and for $30 a year you can get access to 60 days of video history. I have an Arlo security camera system that comes with 7 days of free cloud video storage for up to 5 cameras and an option to keep recorded video in the home on an external hard drive. I would like to see a little more offered by Nest in this area. Since the doorbell itself runs for $229 it should come with some free cloud storage and/or the ability to store video at home yourself on an external hard drive. It would be nice if Nest would allow the use of an external hard drive connected to the router to record the video feed. On top of this, the doorbell camera will eat up 150 to 600 GB of your monthly internet data plan since its always sending video to Nest. I wouldn't recommend this doorbell until Nest fixes the subscription service to be priced more customer friendly and/or allows customers the ability to store video from the doorbell themselves to an external hard drive.

After trying out the Hello for two weeks, we finally had to bid it goodbye. The camera quality itself is very good and the 24/7 recording was what pushed us to choose this over the Ring Pro, but we encountered multiple issues that significantly impacted the functionality of the doorbell camera. First, the camera would go offline frequently for no apparent reason. We verified our upload speeds were well over the Nest requirements, checked WiFi signals outside the house where the Nest was installed, and spent several hours troubleshooting with Nest tech support (e.g. switching from 2.4 to 5 Ghz, rebooting router, verifying router was compatible, etc.). However, we continued to have unexplained outages for approximately 2 minutes at a time 10+ times a day and sometimes several an hour. There was no pattern that we could discern. Second, Nest has confirmed that they impose a cool down delay on subsequent notifications to your phone once they have notified you of a person or motion. (Doorbell presses always trigger an alert, however.) Supposedly there is a 10 minute cool down between person notifications and a 30 minute delay between motion alerts. Nest says this is to keep you from being overwhelmed by alerts. However, this presents a big problem to me. I can get an alert on my phone that, for example, my mail carrier has delivered a package, but I WON'T get an alert if someone stops by and snatches the package before the 10 minute cool down has expired. Of course when I get home and discover it is missing, I can look at the footage and see what happened after the fact, but I would much rather be notified in the moment so I can potentially call the police while the person is still in the area. And 30 minutes between motion alerts is also problematic, especially since the camera sometimes classifies people as motion. Hopefully they will rethink the notification delay and allow it to be user-defined. Finally, many people experienced a big lag on the delays they actually received, myself included. Despite having a clear view of my driveway and walkway, the camera would typically notify me 20-40+ seconds after someone came into view. Sometimes I would get a notification of my mail carrier leaving a package but the mail carrier would already be gone from view. The Nest community support website has multiple people asking about these issues, so if you want an update on where things stand with the above issues, I recommend checking it out.

The Google Hello Smart Wi-fi doorbell works very well. It's obviously a very specialized product, but if you're already part of the "googlesphere" and want to start adding 'Nest' products this one is pretty neat. Like many electronic devices these days there is an app download required in order to install and use the device. Once you have the Nest app installed, you simply scan the QR code and you'll be off and running (There is a back up manual code as well if your QR code reader is a bit testy). It can't be emphasized enough, but CHECK YOUR VOLTAGE before purchasing this item! A certain voltage range is required for this to operate properly. Most homes will fall into the range, but check ahead of time to avoid disappointment. The website for Nest will tell you exactly what you need. If you're super-handy this installation is an absolute breeze. Much of it depends on your existing wiring, of course, but if you have a somewhat newer house you should have no issues at all. From unpacking the box to install completion it took me roughly 20 minutes. I was extremely lucky in that my old doorbell holes perfectly aligned with the Nest Hello holes, so your mileage may vary. Expect it to take longer if you need to drill into brick or anything like that--Google actually includes a masonry drill bit, so that's really cool. I only needed a ladder and a Phillips screwdriver to install this system. That's how easy it can be. If you're not comfortable with DIY (and I urge you to watch a couple of youtube videos--it is VERY easy) google can put you in touch with a professional installer. The system itself is just cool. The app shows you a view of your front door any time you pull it up. It also sends your phone an alert when it "sees" someone within the camera range, even if they don't ring the doorbell. You can set it to record for a certain period of time (30 seconds is the default I believe) and save it to your account. You can pay an additional fee to save these recordings indefinitely (note: I did NOT do this, so I'm not entirely clear on those details, but they are available on the Nest website). The picture is EXTREMELY clear and very impressive. The audio is also very clear. If anyone does ring the doorbell it will record with or without audio depending on your settings. You can also program a speaking message to play automatically (which seems it opens up to so many hilarious possibilities...) whenever the doorbell is pushed. It connects through your wi-fi so it's always on and always "watching". It also has the ability to "recognize" people, so that it will stop sending alerts for them. It will ask when it sends you pictures of people if you want it to remember them. This seems to work very well, and ruled out my family members within just an appearance or two at the door. Overall this is definitely not something for everyone, but if you're in the market for a device like this and want to include your doorbell in the googlesphere of a connected home you can not go wrong with this device. It's especially cool if you've had issues with packages disappearing or vandalism, etc. This is another quality product from Google, and fits perfectly into the "Nest".