Customer Ratings & Reviews

Decent camera. Wireless capability could be a potential security issue.

Perfect product for added home security. Easy installation with the Google Home app.

Really good camera. Works with Google Home well. Audio is good and talking through it with Google Home is also good. Every so often I need to restart it because the video is just a white screen. I think is has something to do with transitioning to night vision mode. Maybe a bit overpriced.

This Google Nest Cam 2nd gen, it is a small yet powerful recording device. It is nicely built, and it has a smooth texture. Some may find it kind of cute, to me it reminds me of the Astro Bot from the PlayStation game LOL. The device itself is small but it carries some weight, maybe because of the base. The camera is not detachable from the base, nor the power cable. That being said, the cable is very long. Setting it up was relatively easy. You will need a Google account and Google Home app and of course a mobile device. This camera connects via Wi-Fi. It can be mounted on the wall or just placed it on any flat surface around the house. This camera is 1080P with night vision and DHR. The quality of the image was super clear and crisp, even the night vision image was clear as well. I was able to make out the faces up close during night recordings. What really impressed me was the sound it recorded. When you review the videos, the sound quality it picks up is amazing. The sound was very very loud and clear, nice job. However, I cannot say the same about the speaker built in the device. The speaker sounds very low, I mean it is a small device there's so much you can expect from it. Using the app you can do two way talk. With this camera you can get up to 3hrs of event history without any subscription. If you need more than that, you will have to subscribe to the Nest Aware services. You can adjust the activity zones, set routines, you can even choose the type of notification whether it is a car, person or animal. Another great feature is that this camera can record offline. According to the manufacturer, it can record up to 1 hour of video or approx.1 week of events, in it’s local internal storage. I simulated that feature by disconnecting the Wi-Fi and it works like a charm. The video recorded all the way until there was no subject in the picture. It is very nice how from the timeline you can actually view the video at the time it was recorded during the offline event. Something to mention is that the end of the power cable has a USB-A connection, if your power outlet has a USB-A socket you can connect it directly. The other flaw I can point out besides the speaker, is that the tilt positions are very limited. That being said, you need to be very specific with the location if you wish to mount this on a wall. Overall, it is a great camera and a great addition to your Google Home ecosystem. It works great, it has a small form factor design, and is easy to set up. In the box you get the Nest Cam power adapter, mounting screws, cable clips, and guides.

I’ve been using the Google Nest Cam Indoor for a while now, and I have to say—it’s one of the easiest security cameras I’ve set up. The picture quality is super clear, even at night, and I really like being able to check in from my phone whenever I’m away. The live feed loads fast and the notifications are instant, so I always know what’s happening at home. What really stands out is how well it works with the Google Home app. I can view everything right alongside my other devices, and the two-way audio is surprisingly clear—perfect for checking in with family or even talking to my pets. The only thing I’d change is that it needs to be plugged in, so you have to plan where you want it. But since it’s small and sleek, it blends right into any room. Overall, if you want a reliable indoor camera that gives you peace of mind and easy control from your phone, this one’s worth it.

I’m going to come right out and say it, I love this little camera. Does it have room for improvement, absolutely, but all in all it’s a great way to add an indoor camera to keep an eye out on areas or pets in your home. \ Setup \ I like to see how intuitive it is to start using things without going to the manual, or quick start guides, this camera is not the most intuitive thing to setup, but it wasn’t too bad. My first issue came up because I thought since it was a Nest Camera, I would need to use the Nest app I use for my thermostat. That is not the case, you need to use the Google Home app, which I already have installed since we have some Nest Speakers, and screens in our home. Once you know to use the Google Home app the setup process took all of 5 minutes. \\ Video Quality \\ This is not a 4k camera, but the quality for my use is great both during the day and at night. Notifications are quick and being able to quickly scrub back and see what has happened in your home is great. I have the camera setup in our front foyer, but the wide angle of the video allows me to be able to see my front door and the entrance from my garage. This location allows me to see if one of my kids goes out the front door and keep an eye on our pup that loves to hang out in our front foyer when no one is home. Video is clear both at night, and in the early morning when the sun is streaming through the windows around our front door. Sound is also super clear, and you can easily hear what is going on in the video as well. \\\ Features \\\ If you’re looking for a basic camera than this will fill that role, the only limitation out of the box is that it will only keep the last 3 hours of video so if you want to go back to see what happened on a previous day then that video will be gone. For you to be able to keep those events longer than you need to upgrade to Nest Aware. This comes with a bunch of extra features one of which is that it keeps your recordings much longer. You get 30 days of event history. Once you start digging into the features offered, depending on what other Nest devices you have this could be its own security system. I have a few Nest speakers throughout my home, and now they all tie into Nest Aware to check for glass breaking, and smoke detectors alarms. You can also have it recognize Familiar Faces, and setup Active Zones. \\\\ Conclusion \\\\ This little camera and the Nest Aware service have made me think that I might be able to get rid of my home security system, and just purchase a couple of Nest cameras to place outside. The service is robust, the camera is easy to setup and use. I would say this covers just about everything my security system covers except for it automatically calling emergency services. I would recommend this camera to anyone looking for an easy way to keep tabs of pets, or specific areas of their home.

This camera offers a great clear and crisp quality video and picture. This is my first introduction into the Google Nest world, but I'm liking it a lot so far. The camera looks aesthetically pleasing without being clunky. The product is packaged well in the box and comes with all the items you need to get up and running. You'll get the camera already attached to the base, power adapter, wall screws, wall anchors, and the cable clip. Depending on your situation and desired location you can either place this on to a flat surface like a table or shelf, but also have the option to mount it to the wall or ceiling with the items provided in the box. You'll also want to ensure you have a good solid wi-fi signal, a Google account, and you'll need the Google Home app. I have this on my iPhone XR and it works smoothly and efficiently. Alerts are very impressive on this camera as it allows for specific prompts of whether it's a car, animal, person. The activity zones are helpful to specify areas that you really get lots of movement in.1080p camera is actually very nice and looks quite clear in day or night settings. I have been liking the broad field of view with the 135 degree field of view so you can get a pretty good lay of the land in most rooms within our home. One of the nice features I've liked has been the 3 hours of free event video for easy viewing on the app. Of course there are other add ons you can purchase for subscription service to have all your footage recorded to the cloud and playback. Overall I have liked the camera for it's ease of use and simple setup for just about any household. This camera gives me peace of mind for having it in our home to keep an eye on babysitters or petsitter visits when I’m away. Being able to turn the camera on or off for privacy is also a convenient feature that helps to keep me a bit more secure. Two communication allows for convenient communication back and forth and I have been pleased with the audio capability. Smart camera is truly intelligent as it allows for familiar face recognition and can notify if it’s a recognized person in your profile or a stranger. Great addition to any home or business setting.

TLDR; I highly recommend this camera if you’re new to the Google Nest Ecosystem. I don’t recommend it if you've already invested hundreds into the pre-Google Nest Ecosystem. Like many others, I’ve invested a lot of money in the Nest ecosystem, way before Google bought them out. Nest products are premium, no doubt. Smart thermostats, security systems, smoke/carbon monoxide detectors, hubs, cameras...you name it, I bought it. So when I heard that Google decided to refresh the Nest camera line, I had to give one a try. The 2nd Gen Indoor Nest Camera (wired) is actually the first Nest camera to come straight out of Google’s headquarters. So my review comes in two forms: a consumer who already is neck deep into the Nest ecosystem with legacy cameras, and a consumer who is purchasing their first Nest Cam. First, the camera itself does not disappoint. It feels premium in your hands with a heavy weighted base for stability and, in my opinion, it looks a lot better than the outgoing model. Upon opening the box, I was surprised to see how small it is as well as its small footprint. It can also be mounted on the wall with two screws and a simple twist-lock system. My only complaint here is the power cord that protrudes right off the backside of the camera. Some of the older Nest Cams have the chord connected at the base to keep the wire neatly hidden. Like the older cameras, the LED indicator is located at 12 o’clock and helps indicate if the camera is nominal, if someone is watching live or has lost connection, for example. Setting the Indoor Nest Cam is very easy using the Google Home app. You simply add a Nest Cam using the setup device wizard within the app. The app will ask to scan the QRC code affixed to the front of the Nest Lens. This will begin the camera search, wifi connectivity and user designated location of the Nest Camera itself. After setup is complete, you’ll be able to see live footage of the camera by selecting the “Cameras” icon on the main Home page. Easy peasy. With these new cameras, the Home app allows you to watch a live feed, see event history based on intelligent object/person identification, set activity zones and even scrub through video. I also want to mention live feed latency is little to almost none; it’s pretty much as real time as it gets. As far as video quality, you're looking at 1080p recording, which I've learned is plenty for an indoor setting and more than enough resolution for the hardware to recognize familiarize faces. Of course, only the most interesting of things happen at night and the night vision is plenty bright without oversaturating. Google provides you a rolling 3-hour event history window as standard. This means it will cache 3 hours of events relative to the current time. So if it’s 9:00PM, you can search through events as far back as 6:00PM….if it’s 9:30PM, then you can only go back as far as 6:30PM. The rolling window will always be continuous. If you decide you need more event caching, then you can opt-in Nest Aware, which is a paid service that allows for 30 days of event caching. And if you’re like me, you can sign up for Nest Aware Plus, which grants 60 days of event caching AND 10 days of 24/7 continuous video history. The 24/7 video history is by far my favorite feature of Nest. As a consumer who is shopping around for their first security cam, the Google Nest cam is a solid buy. They are priced on the higher side with respect to its competitors, but it is still premium hardware backed by solid software engineering. You cannot go wrong if this is your starting point, as Google is now refreshing the Nest lineup. As a consumer who has already bought into the Nest ecosystem with Nest IQ cameras pre-Google, I feel left behind. The thing about us old Nest owners is that we love the original Nest app. It feels much, much more polished than the Google Home app and has a more user-friendly UI when it comes to reviewing events and scrubbing through video footage. It’s just flat out a much better experience for all Nest products, in my opinion. But here’s the kicker: the new Nest Cams are not supported in the original Nest app, so I’m forced to use the Google Home app in order to see my 2nd generation Nest Cam footage. I think this limitation alone will force me to shy away from purchasing the latest Nest cams and probably look into the used market for the legacy cams, or wait until my current cameras literally die of old age or hardware failure before I consider upgrading. I took a star off for not supporting us early adopters.

I'm usually a fan of Google products, and this indoor camera is no different. The Nest Cam performs well for all my surveillance needs. Video quality is good for 1080p, and there is low lag from the time motion occurs to the time at which I'm alerted. Setup was quick and installation was very simple. Google normally offers very straightforward step-by-step guides which can be found via YouTube or through the Google Home app. To be objective, there are 3 disappointing things about this camera. You only get 3 hours of video history. Owners need a Nest Aware subscription to really expand benefits. Since the subscription cost is low, this is not a major con. Unfortunately, this camera doesn't offer 2K/1440p. Full HD is the baseline for most cameras, but I believe a camera that relies on a AC adapter should have a higher video quality. Finally, the integration could be improved. I own a Nest Doorbell, and it is a hassle toggling between 2 apps for full support. Overall, this is camera is good and worth a try if you're already in the Google/Android ecosystem.

After two months using it become red on the screen, check my attach pic

I have been using the original Nest Security cameras for a few years and overall they have served me well. For the last week I have been lucky enough to test the newest Nest Cam Wired security camera. This new camera is similar to the old version however, it introduces new features like 3 hours of storage, activity zones and it uses a different app. Installation and configuration of the camera was simple and straightforward. The camera provides options for wall mounting or just placing it in a location of my choice. Followed by configuring the camera on my Google Home app. Overall the whole process took about 15 minutes. As for the camera performance I think it works pretty well. For the first two days of testing it I had it sitting next to one of my old nest cameras to see if it captures similar events. The new nest cam actually captured more events, recorded more video, had better sound recording and even notified me whenever it detected the face of a new person. So it is definitely a welcomed upgrade. As far as the App is concerned, I know a lot of people have had concerns about using a new app and the fact that the camera doesn't work with the old Nest app. As an owner of the old camera and the new one I actually prefer using the Google home app. Also, I discovered that the New app also shows me the video from my old cameras. Which means I don't need two apps and don't lose out on their functionality. Overall, the New Nest camera took everything I liked from my old cameras and made my experience better. Great job google.

Per usual Google is top notch with packaging. There’s no fuss, just to the point once opening the box. The design is lovely and a welcomed addition to the Nest cam lineup, as we have the older styled ones. I was very happy to see how long the power supply cord was. I believe it’s 10 feet which is great, depending on how the room outlets are set up in an 8ft floor to ceiling home. To my surprise, they also included the power adapter. That was also very welcomed as the trend of not supplying that can be beyond frustrating and down right annoying. Kudos Google. The camera can be rotated in any direction and the cord does not interfere with the rotation at all unless you don’t have much wiggle room from placement to outlet. It has a small footprint and once again Google has done it with the aesthetics of the camera. It’s small enough to go unnoticed if placed on a bookshelf or styled as an accessory on an entry way table, etc. It has a good amount of weight for its size, so it won’t be tipping over if placed on a flat surface. The app provides fast and easy setup for the camera, and if you’ve had experience with connecting devices to the app then you can attest to the simplicity and speed at which you can be up and running. You can scan the code that’s on the face of the device and attach the sticker to the back of starter guide. If you lose it, you can locate the alphanumeric-code under the base of unit (pics attached). There are a few new features integrated for the camera, but the app still lacks some of the conveniences I preferred in the Nest app. There was barely any noticeable latency, but with my experiences with cams is that latency tends to appear within a couple months, however, Nest cams have been great with this as it’s not by much so I’m confident that this will hold up to the same great standards. The quality of the HD 1080p video is great; It’s crisp and clear. Night vision is very good. Not as crisp as the daytime recording but faces and objects are detailed. It recognizes your pets, moving objects, people and cars separately so you’re able to define what you want to be notified about, which eliminates those false notifications. The audio is loud and audible with no distortion. I appreciate the additional 5 degrees of view coming in at a total of 135 degrees. What I don’t like: Being forced to migrate my older Nest cams. I prefer using my Nest app for my older cameras and did not like being “scolded/told” that if I failed to complete the migration I will not be able to do it again using the only email I use for my account. We should have the ability to choose whether to keep or to migrate older Nest cameras. And have the newer cameras use their Google Home app exclusively. So to clarify, it’s fine to use the app for the new cameras, reasonably understandable, but shouldn’t be forced to migrate older cameras. It’s a personal preference matter. I’ve had many issues with the Google app with other Google and non-Google products. I do not like that with this migration Google offers only 3 hours of playback, when older Nest cam users are accustomed to 10 days 24-7 playback for FREE. That now comes with a fee attached. That’s a huge disadvantage and disappointment. There’s other forms and functions that I simply just prefer on the other app. With that being said, I do enjoy this new camera in our space. There are a few things I wish were different within the app. Several things I wished Google still offered free and other features that should have remained. Overall, the quality of the video, the build of the camera and ease of use is fantastic.

Google - Nest Cam (Wired) Comparing home security cameras in the marketplace can be confusing. There are so many, and superficially, they could easily be listed according to price. That would be a mistake. The quality of the camera lenses, the processing capabilities, as well as the various usability features in this Google Nest Cam all add up to a camera that is easy, practical, safe, secure and reliable to use. SETUP: Including an update, completed installation took 11 minutes. Zero aggravation. No hiccups. Google’s Home App is a joy to use on my Apple 12 iPhone. And the final image was crystal clear. This is a thoughtfully designed App, fully integrated with the camera’s software. The camera appears to have high quality lenses. Accessing the camera’s management features is as simple as possible, although it is rich with features. OPERATING FEATURES: Google has built in a number of features designed to provide security while also addressing privacy concerns. This is especially important if your camera is being used inside your home. For example, you can set up the camera so that it recognizes your (or your entire family’s) presence at home and can be set to auto shut off. This could limit its surveillance of a living space to only when everyone is out of the house. YOU can choose to allow or disable location sensing via your phone. Even after that selection is made you now select whether to enable camera function when you are home or only while away. You choose whether to allow notifications when the camera is on. Nest Aware (Sound Detection): Google Nest App allows you to enable “listening” on Google devices YOU select. So, for example, I could select my kitchen Nest Display and a hallway google speaker to “hear” smoke alarms and breaking glass and trigger an alert sent to me and trigger a recorded event. The SUBSCRIPTION ISSUE: Whether you are on the hook for another subscription in oder to have camera functionality is a big issue for a lot of us. Well, you DO NOT NEED a subscription to view 3 hours of events. But a selection of subscriptions is available. Google Nest includes a 3 hour video recording history, but you can add a Nest Aware subscription to extend your video history out to 30 or 60 days. [Nest Aware $6/mo with some available discounts/ pricing models] You can establish Activity Zones. Even with no subscription, there are 3 types of alerts included with the Nest Cam. Person, animal, and vehicles. These are useful tags that simplify searching for events in your recordings and rely on advanced technologies other security cameras make you pay for. BOTTOM LINE: I really like Google Nest’s approach to security cameras. The construction is as solid as a rock, sealed and easily hidden. But, it’s cute and sleek if left in view. And it works reliably, each and every time. I’ve very easily accomplished viewing my Nest Cam on my Google Nest Display: “Hey Google, show me my “Entryway Camera.” Just as easily I can “swipe back left to right on the display” to return to my Nest display’s usual photo slide show. Or, instead, I might command, “Ok Google, go home.” to accomplish the same thing. Love it.

Nest (now owned by Google) has been releasing cameras since their acquisition of Dropcam circa 2014. Since then, they’ve launched a Home App, Smart Assistants in the forms of speakers with integrated monitors, and further developed their cameras to include more security features, with the ability to monitor them at the tap of an app or by asking your Google Home Hub. The unboxing experience feels more premium, compared to nest cams in the past, and nicely packaged for easy removal. In the box you’ll find the camera, a power adapter, mounting hardware (screws and anchors), an attached long USB cable with plastic cable clips (no ties here), and a user manual. It’s important to note there is a QR code located on the sticker which protects the lens and is required for setup (don’t lose it). Plugging the camera in, and you’ll hear an audible tone and a slow pulsing blue light indicating it’s ready for setup. You can’t use the older Nest App for installation and will need to use the Google Home app with your Google login to start the setup. I was pleasantly surprised to find the setup effortless, only requiring the use of the QR code on the camera to identify and connect to the camera, followed by confirmation of connection to your WiFi network, and a quick update to the camera. Once you’ve added the camera to the Home App, you’ll be asked if it’s going to be wall mounted, in which case you’ll simply twist the attached mount plate with a simple push and twist. The mount plate has two screw holes, and once mounted, the camera can be reinstalled to the plate with minimal effort. Total installation time was less than 10 minutes, and the camera was ready to view immediately. You will be asked if you want to sign up for a 30-day trial of their recording service, “Nest Aware,” otherwise you’ll be able to view the most recent 3 hours of recordings. If you already signed up for their service, you’ll simply add this to your account, and it should be ready after setup. With Nest Aware, you also get advanced familiar face detection, 10 days of 24/7 recording, and 60 days of event recordings in smaller clips. The camera itself is a nice soft white in color, with a metal hinge that allows for 180 degrees turn, and a slight tilt for positioning. This allowed for various positioning when installing the camera, and the base did a great job of holding the camera in the desired position with no identifiable shifting after installation. The camera light stays on and can be dimmed slightly if you’re placing this along a window to avoid a bright reflection. It blinks green when someone is watching, making this camera ideal for those worried about privacy while it’s on and a way to identify someone viewing. You have the option of using your smartphone’s location to automate home/away modes, in a same way it works with Nest thermostats, enabling recording only when you’re not home, plus you can also turn off the microphone to stop any audio recordings. You can also program activity zones, which will help mitigate false events; such as, near a busy roadway or walk space. The speaker was loud enough to speak to any pets or people viewed in range of the camera, with no noticeable delay during real-time use. The video quality was probably the biggest upgrade from my previous generation Nest cams, with a wide-angle view to capture more the cameras surroundings. Pointing the camera out my front home office window, and I could easily see my entire front yard, and the approach up my driveway. The night vision is on by default to automatically turn on during lower light environments but can be toggled off to remove any glare if you’re placing this looking out a window. Compared to some other cameras, the color clarity in the dark isn’t as vivid, and with the night vision it does provide clear images. It’s important to note that the Nest cam is only compatible with Google’s assistant hubs if you want to view the live feed outside of your smartphone app. Using a Google Nest Hub, you can simply ask to pull up your live feed or use the hub to view previous event recordings. If you already use Googles Nest doorbell or other cameras, you’ll use this in a similar way, by just asking for the camera by name. Overall, I’m really impressed with the ease of setup, and the wide-angle view shows even more detail around the camera.

I've been using the Nest Cam Indoor Wired for a while now, and it deserves a solid 5 stars. The setup was a breeze, and the sleek design fits perfectly into any room without being obtrusive. The video quality is outstanding—sharp 1080p footage with vibrant detail that makes it easy to monitor every corner of your home. On the audio side, the noise reduction is impressive, ensuring that you hear clear, crisp sound without distracting background noise. If you want a reliable indoor security solution that provides excellent picture and sound quality along with straightforward installation, the Nest Cam Indoor Wired is an excellent choice. It’s a fantastic way to keep an eye on your space while clearly knowing what's happening in your home.

My Google Nest Camera is really like a mini Kaws sculpture that also depicts what's going on in my house, especially by my French Bulldog. I'll also mention that unlike me, you should opt for one of the fun attractive colors. On the topic of design I am also pleased with the base because it's nicely weighted. I've had other wired cameras where the plastic wire is so thick that even if I set an angle it slowly moves the camera from where I pointed it unless it's stuck to a sticker to keep it stationary. Setup was simple like most Google featured devices, the picture resolution is only 1080p when most camera systems are rolling out 2k and 4k so that wasn't fun for me, and then there are the smart alerts which don't feel that unique. The notifications you get are like most out there so I was waiting for the magical moment. The few downsides I immediately noticed was the video event history is only stored for a few hours (crazy when most store at least 48 hrs) where other systems now have unlimited history (unless you pay a subscription fee), the Google app doesn't highlight the camera so it washes out in the background in the Google Home app. I truly wish Nest would have emphasized their presence on the app. So if there's an emergency I'll have to scroll through the Google Home app to get to my camera. Not a big deal because there shouldn't be daily emergencies but I got this camera to watch my pup and he's on my mind a lot so I like to log in and see him. Overall, a very attractive camera that will subtly sit in your home and double as a mini nearly 3 inch tall piece of art!

CONS: - No ability to cast to chromecast at this time (2021) - No control of IR lights (night vision lights) - 24/7 video history is only available in top tier nest aware ($120/year) - Limited and bad range of motion. Hard to get a good framing with limited axis points. - Event notification thumbnails blink but don’t show useful clip of the motion. Sometimes just showed a static photo or maybe 3 frames of video - 1080 video max PROS: - Low light/night vision quality is good - Privacy and data security upgrades including storing facial recognition locally only and other sensitive data - Nice if you have or plan to have more (new) nest cams and never had the old system - detection intelligence was greatly improved and is scary good at recognizing dogs, cats, people, cars, and motion. - Event history from the last 3 hours included without subscription. (Not 3 hours of footage, just the event history clips that occurred in the last 3 hours) TL;DR As a big google fan and an owner of the original nest products, I really wanted to like these new nest cams, unfortunately, there’s just not enough good to outweigh the bad for what I need for MY house. This doesn’t mean they are bad products in the sense of quality, function, and software, it’s just that I feel they really aren’t the best option for everyone out there; myself included. Which I will explain while covering the features of the camera in depth below. But the basic idea is they work as advertised, and are great if you aren’t already in another ecosystem INCLUDING OG Nest. But for a lot of people, there are maybe better options or systems out there with less subscription costs and more available history. What google get’s right here is quality, data security, detection intelligence, and reliability. Some other things fell a little short. NIGHT VISION: These cameras have pretty good night vision. Better than others I’ve seen for sure. However, they also have IR lights to help light the room in night vision mode. You can turn off night vision, make it always on, or auto. However you can not control if the IR lights also turn on. Why is this important? Well these cameras have awesome detection capabilities, including vehicle. Now, if you’re like me, you don’t drive cars inside. Not anymore. So this would lead me to believe I can point this camera out a window from the safety of inside, and monitor my street, awesome! I tried this one day and was really impressed with the detection skills, it recognized vehicles, people, dogs, and the likes. But then the sun set. And all I saw was a bright highlight and a window pane. Ok, I thought, I’ll just turn off the IR lights so they’re not flashing on the glass. But I couldn’t. Meaning these cameras are completely useless to point out a window anytime it’s dark enough to turn on night vision. Now, I did turn off night vision completely and that worked, however, the events were all too dark to make out and only were recorded if there were headlights or light to trigger the motion detection to record. Which brings me to my next personal issue, 24/7 recording. NEST AWARE: So as I mentioned, I have an original nest camera with the legacy version of Nest Aware still. That includes 24/7 video for 5 days for 50 dollars a year. Now, this was PER camera back in the day, and that could add up if you wanted a few cameras in your house. Google has addressed that by making the new nest aware cost 60 dollars a year for multiple cameras and 30 days of event history. (as well as face detection but I live in a state where this is not allowed, so that feature is useless. They still charge you for it, but you can’t use it) If you want the aforementioned 24/7 video stream though, you have to pay 120 dollars a year. 60 dollars more than I pay right now. The 120 dollars adds 24/7 video for 10 days and 60 calendar days of event history clips. I say calendar days because I’ve seen others mention the 3 hour, 30 days or 60 days of event history as if it is an amount of time you can accumulate. However, this is not true, it means literal time of day. So if it was 10PM you can only see events from 7PM forward with the free version. Even if there is only 3 minutes worth of video recorded in those 3 hours, you can only watch that 3 minutes worth of events. The same goes for 30 and 60 days. Now, that may be useful for some people, and if that is you, mark this as a win. For me, I have never needed to see a 10 second clip of my dog walking by the camera 58 days ago. What I need more often is to see what happened 10 seconds before he walked by the camera and triggered a recording event. I understand these new cameras have much better motion detection (and they definitely do) but I have had times in the past when my camera did not see motion or hear a sound and I would need to go into the 24/7 video and scroll through to see what happened. Or sometimes these events start a few seconds late and you need to see before the motion starts to understand what happened. All this to say, for me, I need a 24/7 recording timeline more than I need archived event clips. I reached out to google and asked them about the 24/7 recording and if they would add that option to the 60 dollar a year plan but they did not comment on that. If they added 3 days of 24/7 to the 60 dollar plan, I think I would consider that, but for now, there is no need for me to purchase that new plan. Unfortunately, I can’t use my old nest aware with these new cameras either. CHROMECAST FAIL: So another reason I wanted this camera was to be a more mobile camera I could move around the house a bit to keep an eye on my sick dog while I’m in another room. Currently I do this with my outdoor cameras when he is on the porch and simply cast them to my chromecasts on the TVs. However those are not cameras made by google and sometimes have dropout issues so I thought the best option to work nicely with google's chromecast would be a device MADE by google. Unfortunately, as you can see in the photo, I was wrong. Currently in Oct 2021, you can not cast the google nest cam to your google chromecast on the same wifi. A feature so common and simple, almost anything that is a video feed includes a cast button. I also asked google about this, assuming I was wrong, but they told me that this is accurate and that they have plans to bring this feature soon, but currently it is not available. I don’t particularly like when companies sell a half ready product with plans to fix/add software on the fly. To be fair, it is a pretty common practice now, however I do not appreciate it much and I would think adding casting options would be a priority before launch. I should note, if you want to see the camera feed on a Nest hub display, that will work, but a 7 inch display is not what I need. So far my work around has been to use my tablet and screen cast my entire tablet display with the home app open viewing the camera. GOOGLE HOME APP: I don’t dislike the home app, but there’s no arguing it’s more cluttered and clunky than the old nest app we’re used to. That said, there are some useful things in the home app, like seeing all your available cameras live in one scrollable screen, however, if you do scroll away from a camera, understand if you scroll back up, it will now have to load the video again (as well as drop the video you scrolled away from.) So if you have 5 cameras and can only fit 3 preview screens on your display, then scrolling down will load the other 2, but if you quickly scroll back up to the top, the top 2 will need to load again, (roughly 3 to 4 seconds). This makes monitoring an entire house at once basically impossible. If you need/want that, get a dedicated in home professional security system. Best buy sells those too. But if you want these cameras just to casually keep an eye on what’s happening, you’ll be fine. OVERALL: This is a hard item to review because the product itself is NOT bad. It is a good camera, with decent picture, a good price, and some bells and whistles with great detection capabilities. It also is worth mentioning Google beefed up the privacy and security as well as took advantage of local storage for sensitive material so it never has to leave your physical property. So it’s clearly a great device. But it’s not for me. It’s not what I wanted or expected from Google's take on a Nest cam. I also don’t love that they charge so much for Nest Aware and make the most useful feature only in a 120 dollar plan. By the time you have enough cameras to make that plan worth it, you are better off buying IP cameras and local storage and paying 0 dollars to record as much as you want and the footage never leaves your home. It may cost you more upfront, but over the years you will save hundreds. Which is why I am choosing to say I can not recommend these cameras to my friends. Sure if you only need a camera with live video and don’t care much that you can’t be sure you’ll see all important past video, then this is still great. But again, personally I would just buy a 40 or 50 dollar cheap brand basic IP camera and would easily be able to watch live video. It won’t have all the detection and alerts, so that’s really the deciding factor. If the features line up with your needs, you’ll probably be happy, they are nice cameras. But make sure you do your homework like reading this insanely long review, and decide if it’s right for YOU.

I’m not fully sure how I feel about this camera. Part of me absolutely loves the features but another part of me expected more for the price and it being a Google device. Picture quality is perfectly adequate. The number of features is excellent as expected at this price point. But if you want full functionality you need to add a monthly payment which I don’t like. Opening the live stream is fast but looking at histories is a bit to a lot slower depending on internet connection. It comes in a very attractive design, in four different colors, and feels very premium in the hand. Easily blending into a modern home while also being low-profile. Probably one of the most attractive cameras I’ve seen. Setup was easy but I find the settings and Google Home App to not be very user friendly. Other security cameras software’s are easier to figure out with almost all the same features. The video quality is 1080p and HDR compatible. I like the HDR component as that makes a big difference when you have light/dark areas. But the 1080p is a bit disappointing as I’ve found 1440p – 2160p is best. But with it being an indoor camera and for the price 1080p works just fine. Picture quality is perfectly adequate but won’t make you go wow. Night vision is good and clear. No complaints on that end. But the big draw is the other features. First, it comes with 3 hours of “event” history. Which doesn’t sound like very much as it is worded poorly. It doesn’t mean it only records the last three hours. But instead records up to 3 hours of events. Meaning it is equivalent to about 2 – 3 weeks (depending on how many alerts you get). As each alert is 5 – 60 seconds out of 10,800 (3 hours = 10,800 seconds). If the wi-fi goes down, it can record up to 1 hour (or about 1 week) and then will upload the results to the cloud when it comes back on. Unfortunately, you can only see video via your phone or Google Device. You cannot view it on PC. Which means I can’t check in on what is happening at home while at work. Which I don’t like. These alerts are “smart” and can notify you if it spots people, animals, vehicles, and/or motion. You can select which ones you want and if you want it to send you a notification. In other words, you can turn each one on/off so it will record and individually select if you want it to send you a notification or not. You can also setup multiple zones. In each zone you can do the same thing of selecting what you want it to detect and if it sends you a notification. I like that a lot. Most cameras aren’t “smart” and can only detect motion and/or a person but those are also cheaper. The ones in a similar price range can do the same thing. With it being indoor and not having an IPX rating I’m limited in what it picks up depending on your home and or business. The alerts themselves are good and will say which camera, which zone, and what it thinks it detected.. Selecting the notification will open it up in the app. You can scrub through the timeline to find events, or you can go into a full history to see each event in a row. But getting to that is a bit buried and complicated. Last, you can filter by event type (person or animal). Which I don’t think I’ve seen on other cameras and is appreciated if you are looking for something particular. I really like that feature. You can buy “Nest Aware” for $6 a month or $60 yearly, which gives you 30 days of video history clips or “Nest Aware Plus” for $12 a month or $120 yearly, for the top tier which gives you 60 days of event history AND 10 days of continues 24/7 video history. If you remember from before that 3 hours is equal to about 3 weeks 30 – 60 days is like A LOT. Both versions unlock other features such as being able to recognize familiar faces and important sounds such as smoke alarms. I’m not always the fan of another monthly payment. But they have to pay for that cloud storage somehow and for what you are getting it could be worth it. Thankfully, if you own multiple Nest Gen 2 devices you only have to pay for a SINGLE membership for all your cameras where previously it was for each camera. So, if you have multiple cameras, it’s probably worth it. But you can get by without it just fine as well. Some other settings are home and away routines. That way the camera will turn on when you aren’t home and then turn off when you are home. They do this by pairing it with your phone. It also automatically connects to any of your google devices. So, if you are deep in that echo system this is the device to get. There is a green light on the device to notify you when it is recording. That way if you’re home you can tell if someone is spying on you. Also, appreciated. I’m sure there is more but I hit on most of the main stuff.

We got this mainly to keep an eye on our dog when we aren’t home or if we are traveling with her and leaving her in the Airbnb. Very small and portable, easy to setup, and great picture quality. Also, it picks up sound very well. I like how it records videos when there is motion detected. This is very handy for when we stay in hotels with our dog we can see if anyone (housekeeping) came in and make sure they didn’t mess with the dog or do anything inappropriate while we were gone.

Ok, let me start by saying that this camera is actually very nice. The picture is clear as day in day and night vision, there’s a lot of customizable settings, it’s overall a great camera and definitely holds its own. BUT, there is a HUGE issue when trying to connect more than 1 camera. We bought 2 of these yesterday, along with the hub, and we also received a google doorbell for Christmas. Before purchasing/receiving these items, we already had the nest minis and other products that are Google compatible that were all connected/synced within the Google home app. We have yet to set up the doorbell but last night after purchasing the two cameras and the hub we immediately set up the hub. Connected perfectly with no issues. We then proceeded to set up the 1st camera in our living room. The set up was extremely easy and took about 15 minutes from start to finish. We then went upstairs into our bedroom to set up the 2nd camera and here is where the HUGE problem was that I’m very disappointed/surprised that Google has not addressed yet. We plugged the camera in and followed the same steps we did for the first camera. Plugged it in, went to the Google home app, clicked the “+” button in the left hand corner of the app to “add a new device”, and waited for the device to be found. We tried over and over again and we kept getting a message that said “couldn’t find assisting device” or something along those lines. We tried every troubleshooting solution that we could possibly find and absolutely NOTHING worked. We tried unplugging the WiFi router and plugging it back in, we tried airplane mode with WiFi and Bluetooth turned on, we tried removing the 1st camera from the app entirely and then connecting the second camera to only go back to reconnect the 1st camera and that STILL didn’t work. I finally found an online forum with some answers. This is a HUGE software bug that google should be addressing as we wasted 5 hours of our life trying to get both cameras connected and usable. Here is how we did it; Set up the first camera and follow directions, it should worked perfectly and quickly. In order to connect the 2nd camera, you will need to completely remove the 1st camera off the google home app by clicking on the first camera in the app, going to the top right, click on the settings button which is right next to the button with the 3 little dots, then click “remove device”. After doing the above you will then go to your second camera, plug it in, and repeat the steps to set up the second camera and it should connect to the app with no problems. Now in order to set the 1st camera back up you will need to plug it in, and before you go to the app to set it back up, you will need to do a HARD reset. The hard reset button is on the back of the camera. It’s a little tiny hole that you will need to use a toothpick to push in. You need to hold the button in until you hear a chime from the camera and the LED indicator on the front changes color. It will turn orange at first and then change to blue (which is the color it needs to be). After doing this, you should be able to go into the app and set it up just fine, as you did the first time. This whole process took 5 hours from start to finish and it was extremely frustrating as it took me a very long time to find the online forum with these answers. Even after finding the online forum with people having these same issues, a lot of the solutions people were posting did not work for us. We needed to do the hard reset on the 1st camera in order for it to able to reconnect. This is a HUGE software glitch within the app and google is aware of these issues and has not addressed them, even knowing about it before the holidays. I felt it was imperative that I posted this as I’m sure a lot of people are returning their cameras and other google devices because of this. You should not have to go through all of this just to set up more than one camera especially when they’re selling them in 2 packs and 4 packs. It’s extremely disappointing when the cameras are such good quality. We almost returned the second camera as we thought it was faulty and thank god we didn’t because we would’ve had the SAME issue and would’ve wasted even more of our time going back to the store just to get another camera that doesn’t connect. We did successfully connect our doorbell camera after all of this with no further issues and did not have to disconnect anything, which is a good thing I guess. But this whole ordeal was beyond frustrating. I hope a lot of people see this before purchasing so you don’t waste hours of your life trying to do it like we did. Side note, I attached a picture of where the hard reset button is. I didn’t think to take any screenshots of what the messages were saying when the cameras weren’t connecting but I did try to explain within this review the best I could.