Customer Ratings & Reviews

You cant activate these anywhere. There is no 3rd gen option in the app.

I have been using a Nest doorbell camera for a few years now, and a couple of years ago added another indoor camera. When I saw the new Nest Indoor Cameras I thought it was time to add a second indoor camera. I’ve been using this new Gen 3 camera for a little more than a week now and I can easily say that this was a great addition to your setup. The video and audio is very clear. I already thought my older Nest cameras were great, but this new one definitely adds some fidelity to both the video and audio. Video is very clear even at night when the house is dark you can still easily make out details. A cool new feature that thankfully came to all of my Nest cameras is the addition to Gemini. While I thought it was a bit of a gimmic at first, I am happy to see that it is actually quite useful. Instead of just getting a notification that there was motion from a camera it gives you a brief description. I was at work and got a notification that there was a person with a leaf blower at our front door. Sure enough, our gardener was out taking care of the yard. I’ve also had numerous notifications from this indoor camera where the description says that our dog is on the couch. I can only imagine that these notifications will get better as the AI integration matures. I have been very happy with our Nest cameras which is why I have 3 of them. This new one is a nice upgrade to both video and audio quality. Setup is a breeze and it’s nice that they include some hardware to mount the camera on the wall as well. The power cable is very long so that should make it easier to find an effective place to set the camera up. The new Gemini are just icing on an already delicious cake. This is an easy recommendation.

The video on the Google Nest Cam (wired, 3rd gen) is excellent 2K HDR quality — sharp and clear, significantly sharper than what’s produced by the average 1080p camera. You can zoom in without it fuzzing out, which is very useful for me when I want to check and see whether the dog is curled up on the couch or one of the cats are getting crazy on the table. The wide viewing angle captures most of a room, and night vision is surprisingly effective in dark or dimly lit rooms. Setup was fast and painless. Plug it in, hook up to Wi-Fi and you’re good to go. Because it’s wired, you don’t have to worry about recharging batteries, but where you put it is contingent on having an outlet nearby. I mounted mine near the entrance to my great room where it can soak up all the action. The clean look works with the room’s decor; subtle, yet modern. By far the best is Gemini integration. The AI-driven alerts and summaries are more than just bodily motion detection. I receive targeted alerts for motion in specific zones (like the pet area), and it even tells me what caused the motion! When I travel for business, an app opens and within seconds all is well in real time on my screen. The app interface is no-frills, and the two-way audio feature does indeed work — I’ve used it to speak with the pets a handful of times. Video playback is decent, provided you have a good Wi-Fi connection. The only downsides are that it’s an indoor-only camera (so you wouldn’t want to use it outdoors), and some of its smarter features do require a subscription plan if you want full access to history and advanced alerts. Final Thoughts: If you want to use high-resolution video and helpful smart features to keep tabs on your home or pets, the Nest Cam Indoor (3rd Gen) is a good bet for any price. It feels as solid and premium as it looks, with high image quality, ease of setup, and reliability. I've grown to rely on it for peace of mind — particularly when I'm away for the day or traveling. It’s one of the most practical gadgets in my smart home setup because I can check in on the dog and our little trio of cats in real time, receiving clear video and smart notifications.

Google Home was the first smart home platform I invested in, and I've been using Google Nest indoor and outdoor cameras as my eyes and ears around the house for years now. While I have all three major smart home platforms up and running -- and even have a Home Assistant server going, too -- Google Assistant is still my default voice command system. Needless to say, when Google finally released updated Nest Cams, I quickly took the opportunity to test one out. I've been relying on Google Nest Cams (and the Google Nest Doorbell Battery) for a long time, and I've generally been pleased, if not "wowed," with their performance. For one monthly subscription I get streaming video with acceptable quality, event notifications and a month's worth of saved video should I need to go back and review anything. Things just work for the most part, with the occasional hiccups I've come to expect from most smart home technology. I was particularly excited to see Google increase the video resolution to 2K on these new Nest Cams, and I was interested in the AI-powered features advertised. I'm an AI skeptic, but using AI to better identify and search video seems like a no-brainer application. As usual, the Google Nest Cam 3rd gen arrived smartly packed in high-quality, fully-recyclable packaging, which Google has been doing for a while now. If you've seen or held a Nest Cam in the past few years, you'll find no surprises here; the design and quality is typical Google. I was hard-pressed to tell the difference between this and my installed Nest Cams. The only physical differences seem to be the larger lens and the USB-C cable and power adapter, both welcome updates. You'll find a weighty, high-quality camera with a long, permanently-attached cable. The plastics are matte with a nice feel, and the cord is thick and durable, but still easy to route and work with. The power adapter is a bit more compact with a side port. I'm glad it's not permanently attached, allowing you some flexibility. The setup process is similar, but noticeably quicker and a bit smoother than previous-gen Nest Cams. The Google Home app's latest update plays a role in this, with the overall experience being a bit better than in the past. I was able to add the device quickly and with no issues. I decided to set it up in my office, as that's where my cat hangs out most of the time when I'm away, and let's be real, the cameras are mostly to keep an eye on him when I'm not home. After the easy pairing process I set the camera up on the corner of my bookshelf (it replaced a last-gen wired indoor Nest Cam, which I moved elsewhere) and aimed it to capture most of the room. The field of view is definitely wider and taller, with more of the room and the edge of the bookshelf visible. The FOV is expanded enough that I'm considering mounting the camera on the wall to capture more of the room and less of the bookshelf where the camera is currently perched. The new Nest Cam's 2K resolution is arguably the marquee feature here, and I expected to notice an immediate difference... but I didn't. The image is clearer, but not dramatically so, and it's still pixelated for the first few moments of a livestream. The colors are well-balanced and night vision works, but the difference on my phone screen is just not as noticeable as I thought it would be. Where the higher resolution does stand out is when you zoom in. Here things degrade noticeably on the previous gen Nest Cams, but stay a bit clearer and sharper on this latest model. Another neat feature enabled by the higher resolution is auto-zoom for the little notification videos the Google Home app sends you; I was surprised and delighted to see the camera zooming in on my cat stretching his legs when it (accurately) notified me of his motion. I added the camera to my home and away automations (the setup flow didn't suggest this, as it does with older devices) and so far it's worked well. I have had trouble with previous-gen devices not obeying the home/away routines, which has required me to make separate camera-by-camera home/away routines that do work. A weird bug with the app for me, but adding the additional automations has been successful. The letdown for me with this new Nest Cam are the marquee AI features, or lack thereof. Google has been heavily advertising AI event descriptions ("dog jumps out of playpen") and the ability to ask Gemini for details on what happened throughout the day... but buried in the fine print is that you'll need a Google Home Premium Advanced subscription for these features. I have the standard Google Home Premium subscription and I admit I missed the word "Advanced" the first few times I read through the product details. the "Advanced" subscription is fully double the cost of regular Google Home Premium, and it's not included in the Google One/Google AI Pro subscription I have already. I'm not currently willing to shell out even more to Google for these features, so I can't evaluate how well they work in this review. I wish Google had at least included a free trial of the Advanced plan so I could see if they'd be worth the substantial price increase. For now I'm going to stick with the plan I have already. Overall, the Google Nest Cam Indoor (wired, 3rd gen) is a solid performer, but not the exciting upgrade I was hoping for. Performance is smooth and generally trouble-free, but the same is true for the last-gen cameras. The wider field of view and 2K resolution are improvements, but subtle ones. The Gemini-powered AI event descriptions, search and daily summaries are limited to the twice-as-expensive Google Home Premium Advanced plan, which isn't totally clear in all of the marketing materials I've seen. Moreover, these features are not exclusive to the new models; they're available on all the previous-gen nest Cams I already own. For me, Google's latest Nest Cam is good, but not great. It has solid performance and construction, but doesn't offer anything really new or innovative other than a slight resolution bump. The best AI features are not exclusive to the latest models and are paywalled behind the most expensive subscription tier. If you already have a home full of Nest Cams, there's not much reason to upgrade.

If there was one major drawback to the previous gen of Nest Indoor Cams, it was the night vision capabilities. They simply weren't as good as other comparable products, and left a lot of the viewing frame bathed in a murky mess of grey and black that made it hard to distinguish what was happening. It was infuriating getting a notification about movement on the Nest Cam, and then struggling to make out what exactly was happening. This model, however, fixes all of that. The normal light and daytime video is excellent, and now the nighttime video is as well. Excellent camera quality across the board. The build quality is excellent is always, just like the previous generation. This a sturdy and well-built camera they will survive a fall triggered by a curious pet. The unit has a decent weight to it, too, so it won't fall to easily when jostled by accident. This new model has improved motion detection and a shorter wait time to access the camera. This isn't a huge difference, but it is speedier than the previous gen. There are advanced AI features, but you need the premium Home subscription plan to access them. This is an excellent and durable camera without those features. The integration with the Home app is seamless and great. You can see all your cameras at a glance when opening the app and easily view your event history from either a notification or the Home app. In short, the improvements to video quality take all of the things that made the previous model great and and make it that much better in this gen. This is an excellent choice as a first step in setting up a quality home security system with sturdy and reliable equipment. And because it's made by Google, software and hardware problems will get addressed over the life of the device, which is something you can't be confident about with some other manufacturers. A great camera and an excellent first step in building a home security setup. Strongly recommended if you use any other Neet products and are familiar with the Home app.

This camera is wired and is intended for indoor use (should be obvious, but...). I got this camera to replace a previous generation indoor camera that I will recycle to another part of our home. There are a few fundamental differences between the prior generation and the third-generation cameras. One is camera resolution - 2K video (for both day and night) for the third-generation product versus 1080p for the second-generation product. Another is the integration of Google Gemini AI, which is Google's AI chatbot. Yet one more is there are two additional color offerings for the third-generation indoor camers - berry and hazel. Both nice colors, but white worked best for our home. My experience with Google Gemini AI is limited at this time, but it does appear to offer some compelling benefits, such as searching for a specific item or event by way of a query. It is possible to define activity zones so that other areas can be excluded, and, conversely, the activity zone becomes the primary area of focus for alerts. We purchased the advanced subscription, and that get us 60 days of event-based video history, ten days of 24/7 continuous video history, descriptive notifications, the ability to search video history, event descriptions, and daily summaries. While the review is about the camera, many of the camera's benefits (for our use-case, at least) and intertwined with this subscription service. This is a tremendous camera for the money.

This camera is a solid choice for anyone looking for a tad more security since… what else is a camera for? Out of the box, this is minimal, solid packaging as you’re buying from a major tech company like Google, who gets what they’re doing. The camera is inside the box alongside warranty, setup instructions, mounting screws, and power plug. Setup was very simple as this is all pretty bare bones. The cord is probably 8ft as a guess, as they want you to be able to reach far off places. I didn’t mount my camera but used it in our loft to monitor the dog while I’m at work. The camera and base are stable, sturdy, and also happen to rotate with manual assistance, so you can get this setup at your preferred angle. As for setup, it was kind of easy? There was a QR code sticker on the front of the camera lense and I assumed you could scan that to get going, since that’d make the most sense. Wrong. Scanning that takes you to a Google search with irrelevant info. After glancing at the simple included instructions, it forward me to download the Google Home app. It’s a Google product so you can bet that first things first, you get to connect them to WiFi, give them access to your phone data, microphone, location, Bluetooth connectivity, camera, etc. sigh. Even setup had its hiccups though, as I didn’t see the need to give Google access to my phone camera, and nothing indicated that it was necessary, so I declined their request. Eventually I stalled out in my setup process but after troubleshooting, they couldn’t tell me what the issue was and the app gave no notice. Eventually I went back and gave them camera access and was able to complete my setup. Just be aware you’ll have to give them access to everything on your phone. Once setup, you’re off to the races. Picture quality is really solid. There’s a two way speaker on the camera so you can watch the feed from your phone and communicate back and forth. The audio is quite clear though there seems to be a very noticeable delay when trying to speak through the camera. Additionally it’s very unclear how, if at all to change the settings of camera audio. The audio is very sensitive to where if I’m in the same room, and decide to use my app to speak through the camera (for testing purposes cause why would you normally do that), it just creates an endless audio loop that eventually loops so much it’s piercing noise. You can’t seem to control the volume on the camera either, it just comes out at the predetermined volume whether you like it or not which is quite puzzling. The app will, without paying for a premium subscription, record and store any human movement within the last 5 hours. While helpful, I wish there was setting to capture animal movement but there doesn’t seem to be and it’s very good at distinguishing the two, so you’ll need even accidentally get animal recordings. All said, when it comes to ease of use and camera quality, this is a solid get, but leaves a bit to be desired on the setup process and execution.

I’m impressed with the hardware design of this camera. The camera mount is designed to work on either a flat surface or be twisted to support attaching flat against a wall while still allowing vertical and horizontal adjustment of the camera. It’s a fantastic design that requires no assembly. The 2K camera with HDR provides up to a 6x zoom capturing an excellent amount of detail for such a small device. 
On the software side, connecting to Google Home took a few seconds, and a new Cameras section appeared in the Google Home app with a thumbnail view of the live feed from the camera. Tapping it reveals a split screen navigation with the camera image on the top of the screen and a recent clips history below. The past clips default to a view telling you what you are looking for with a timestamp and a clip length followed by a looping fast video playback of the each clip. I love that the clips automatically fast play, giving me an almost instant understanding if the clip can be ignored or if it needs to be played back for a more detailed review. If you don’t like it, there’s a toggle switch to go to a traditional static timeline view without the auto clip playing. The software experience is easy to navigate and simple to use as long as you are currently using Google Home for your Smart Home. Where I start to get frustrated is that Nest continues to be a closed ecosystem where paid subscribers get great features, but the device is handicapped unless you subscribe. There’s no local storage on this device and no method to bring your own storage. I run Home Assistant and this device can not be brought into Home Assistant without first playing Google a fee to access the API’s and even then the cameras are not able to use my existing storage servers. Instead Google offers 6-hour video preview without a subscription, or moving up to Google Home Premium gets you 60 days of history. It’s only with Google Home Premium Plus subscriptions that you get access to continuous video recording, but archiving is only good for 60 days. Bottom line: if you are already a Google Nest User with a subscription, this is a great camera to upgrade to.

I love these little Google cameras. We had a previous model and it worked great until it took a fall it didn't survive but otherwise these hold up to life with kids and pets pretty well. This is probably the fastest and easiest device setup I've experienced with testing various brands and styles. The Google home app is pretty straightforward and it takes a couple mins to get things set up and updated. After that you've got a solid camera that doesn't look like an ugly home security device ready to go. The cord is nice and long and allows for mounting pretty much anywhere without worries. I like how clear the picture is even when zooming in. Might vision is clearer on this camera than any other option I've tried in the past. It's easy to manage multiple cameras with the app if you'd like as well. The red color was too hard to pass up, it adds a nice little touch. We ended up using this one as more of a security camera and have it facing our front door. This is used to double check doors are locked as needed and also alerts if someone were to enter the home unexpectedly. I like these so much I've purchased some to share with family.

Ive owned all types of security camera both wired and wireless and some are much easier to use than others and switching my entire home eco system infrastructure over to Google was the smartest decision I made for my smart home. Not only do these camera hold up to any type of climate and environment, they are easy to set up and sync with the Google Home app and also syncs with my other smart home products like doorbells, locks etc. This camera also has a very long cord to mount this magnetically anywhere in your home, which I did like, and you can mount on a wall or just have it sitting on a shelf or table. It gives a clear picture, recording time is adequate and it helps to keep your home secure. This also has night vision which helps to give a nice glimpse of what is happening day or night in your home. With the ease of use and ease of setup, it provides serious competition to several others in a very crowded security camera market with many that are similar but not the quality build Google provides.

The Nest Cam Indoor (wired, 3rd gen) is a clean, low-profile security cam that actually delivers. I got it for indoor monitoring, and it’s been sharp—literally. The 2K HDR video gives you crisp detail, even in low light. Wired setup means no battery drama, and it’s been rock solid on Wi-Fi. What really sets it apart is Gemini: it doesn’t just detect motion, it tells you what’s happening. You can ask it things like “What did the dog do today?” and it’ll pull clips. That’s next-level smart, but you’ll need the Google Home Premium plan to unlock those features. Setup’s easy through the Google Home app (not the old Nest app), and it can ID people, pets, and vehicles. Familiar face recognition is a nice touch too. Downsides? You’ll need decent internet for full 2K streaming, and some Gemini features are still rolling out. For $99.99, it’s a strong pick if you want smart indoor coverage with real context—not just motion blur and vague alerts. Great for keeping tabs on pets, family, or your space without going full surveillance mode.

The video is very crisp! I already had a Nest Hub Max but the live video rarely plays correctly, so I was skeptical on this purchase. However, it's much more responsive and way better for viewing. Also it's super tiny! The cable is long and much appreciated. I have no complaints thus far!