Control your Google Nest display

Your Google Nest display screen shows a wealth of information like notifications, weather forecast, activities, and alarms. For most actions, you can control the screen with your hands or your voice.

Use your screen

• Wake up your screen: Tap it or say "Hey Google."
• Go back to the previous screen: From the left edge of the screen, swipe right or say "Hey Google, go back."
• Go to Home Control: From the top of the screen, swipe down.
• Start Photo frame: On the Home screen, swipe right.
• Turn off your screen: To make the screen dark, say "Hey Google," then "off" or "turn off."
• (US only) Show apps: While on the Photo frame screen, from the bottom of the screen, swipe up to find apps for your display. To find all apps, tap See all. To close, from the top of the screen, swipe down.

Use pages

Your screen can display pages with touch controls and important information about your day, your linked devices, and more.

To open the page's Navigation menu, tap the display screen when it shows photos or when it’s in Ambient mode.

• Tap the name of the page you want to open.
• Or, from the right edge of the screen, swipe left.

Available pages

• Your morning, your afternoon, or your evening: This page shows you your schedule, the weather and more. The title and content of the page changes depending on the time of day. 
• Wellness: Shows Sleep Sensing info about your last night’s sleep, weekly sleep trends, suggested sleep schedules, and personalized coaching and tips. The “Wellness” page is currently available only on Nest Hub (2nd gen).
• Home control: Use this page to control smart devices that are linked in the Google Home app. 
• Media: This page shows you music, videos, podcasts, news recommendations and your ongoing media activities. You can control media from this page.
• Communicate: You can make voice and video calls, broadcast messages to other speakers and displays in your home, and check your household contacts from this page. 
• Discover: Discover relevant content and new features on this page.

Remove cards

To remove cards from your screen, press and hold a card. Note: You can dismiss some cards, but not all of them.

If you dismiss cards for alarms, timers and local media playback sessions on your Nest display, you end these activities. If you dismiss cards for remote playback sessions on other speakers or smart displays, you don't end the playback session. When you’re ready, you can end the playback session on the remote device, or you can retrieve the media controls through the Media page. Or, on the Home control page, tap the “Speakers and TVs” card to control media that plays on any device in your home.

Change your screen settings

Brightness

 From the top of the screen, swipe down to open the Quick settings menu, then tap Brightness . To adjust the brightness, swipe the slider left or right. To turn Ambient EQ on or off, tap Brightness  again.

Volume

From the top of the screen, swipe down to open the Quick settings menu, then tap Volume . To adjust the media volume, swipe the slider left or right. To change alarm volume, tap Expand , then swipe the alarm slider left or right. You can also adjust media volume with voice commands such as "Hey Google, turn it up" or "Hey Google, turn it down." Additionally, you can adjust the volume with the buttons on the back of your Nest display's screen.

Silence incoming calls and notifications

From the top of the screen, swipe down to open the Quick settings menu, then tap Do Not Disturb . You should find missed notifications on the home screen.

Note: Alarms and timers still work when Do Not Disturb is on.

Alarms

 Set an alarm

From the top of the screen, swipe down to open the Quick settings menu, then tap Alarms   Set an Alarm  select the time  tap Set. You can customize your alarm to make the alarm repeat, change the alarm tone, include a sunrise alarm, or play your morning routine. When finished, tap Done.

Set alarm defaults

From the top of the screen, swipe down to open the Quick settings menu, then tap Alarms   Settings .

Adjust alarm volume

Swipe up, then tap Volume   Expand   adjust the volume of your alarm.

Set and manage alarms

Change what shows in Photo frame

Your screen can show personal photos, a clock, or other backgrounds when you’re not using it.

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Favorites or Devices .
3. Touch and hold your device's tile.
4. Tap Settings .
5. Tap Photo frame.
6. Choose what to show in your Photo frame.

Learn more about Photo frames and live albums.

Hide Personal results from your home screen and notifications

If you turn on Personal results for your Nest display, you automatically get Personal results like upcoming calendar events, commute info, and personalized YouTube video recommendations on your home screen and as notifications. Anyone near the device can view it. So, tap and act on them.

To hide personal results on the home screen and as notifications:

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Favorites or Devices .
3. Touch and hold your device's tile.
4. Tap Settings   Recognition & sharing  Personal results.
5. Turn off Personal Results.

Learn more about Personal results. 

Turn your microphone and camera on or off

You can use the switch on the back of your Nest display to turn the microphone (and camera for Nest Hub Max) on and off.

Turn Motion Sense on or off

On Nest Hub (2nd gen), you can turn Motion Sense on or off to start or stop detecting movement. Note: Motion Sense needs to be on to perform Quick Gestures and Sleep Sensing.

1. From the bottom of your Nest Hub (2nd gen) display, swipe up.
2. Tap Settings   Motion Sense .

Turn Sleep Sensing on or off 

On Nest Hub (2nd gen) displays, you can quickly pause and unpause Sleep Sensing. This will prevent Sleep Sensing from activating when you are in your sleep spot. Sleep Sensing must be set up and calibrated to pause Sleep Sensing on your display.

1. From the bottom of your display, swipe up.
2. Tap Sleep Sensing . Tap again to turn it back on.

If instead, you’d like to deactivate Sleep Sensing, learn how to change Sleep Sensing settings.

Pause and resume media with Quick Gestures

 When you use a hand gesture to interact with your Nest Hub Max or Nest Hub (2nd gen), you can control media and not have to touch the screen or use voice commands. This can be very useful when your hands are dirty, such as when you follow along with a cooking video. You can also use the same gesture to dismiss timers and alarms, or to stop Google Assistant from talking.

With Nest Hub Max

 To use Quick Gestures with Nest Hub Max, you must have Camera Sensing turned on.

Look at your device and hold your hand up with your palm facing the camera to: Pause and resume media Dismiss timers and alarms Stop Google Assistant from talking

With Nest Hub (2nd gen)

To use Quick Gestures with Nest Hub (2nd gen), you must have Motion Sense turned on.

Tap the air in front of your display to: Pause and resume media Stop Google Assistant from talking
Wave your hand in front of your display to: Dismiss timers Snooze alarms

Disable or enable Quick Gestures

With Nest Hub Max

1.   Make sure your mobile device or tablet is connected to the same Wi-Fi or linked to the same account as your Google Nest display.
2. Open the Google Home app .
3. Tap Favorites or Devices .
4. Touch and hold your device's tile.
5. Tap Settings   Recognition & sharing  Recognition & personalization.
6. Turn Quick Gestures on or off.

With Nest Hub (2nd gen)

1. Make sure your mobile device or tablet is connected to the same Wi-Fi or linked to the same account as your Google Nest display.
2. Open the Google Home app .
3. Tap Favorites or Devices .
4. Touch and hold your device's tile.
5. Tap Settings   Quick Gestures.
6. Turn Quick Gestures on or off.

Pair your display with Bluetooth

Note: Only displays that run Fuchsia OS have the feature to pair your display with Bluetooth in device settings. If your display runs on Cast OS, you can still use the Google Home app or voice commands to pair your Bluetooth devices.

With your Nest Hub (1st gen) or Nest Hub Max

To use your display as a Bluetooth speaker:

1. On your display, swipe up from the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap System Settings   Bluetooth  Use display as a Bluetooth speaker.
3. Use your mobile device to find your display. To do this, open your Bluetooth options on your phone and look for your device. Then, on your display, tap Done.

With a new or an external device

To pair other Bluetooth devices with your display:

1. On your display, swipe up from the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap System Settings   Bluetooth  Pair new device.
3. Make sure the Bluetooth device you wish to pair is searchable and in pairing mode. On your display, select Pair next to the device you wish to pair. Then on your display, it should say Paired.

To remove previously connected devices:

1. Tap System Settings    Bluetooth.
2. Select the arrow next to the device you wish to unpair.
3. Tap Forget Device.

Related articles

Camera states and controls: Google Nest Hub Max
Ambient EQ of your Google Nest display