Change Nest camera or doorbell video quality

The video quality settings let you choose how much of your Internet connection gets used by your Google Nest camera or doorbell to stream live video. The higher the quality setting is, the more bandwidth is used.

No matter which option you pick, both your camera and the app will automatically adjust its resolution to work with the available bandwidth.

You can check how much bandwidth and total monthly data is required to use your camera at each video quality level in our Help Centre.

Nest camera Internet bandwidth requirements

Change video quality settings

This setting lets you pick the maximum video quality. Follow the app instructions for your camera or doorbell to adjust the video quality.

Note: No matter which level you choose, your camera will automatically adjust its resolution and compression according to how much bandwidth is available.

Home app

1. Open the Home app .
2. Tap and hold your device's tile.
3. At the top right, tap Settings .
4. Choose Video.
5. Under 'Video quality', choose Max or High.
   • High settings use less bandwidth.
   • Max settings use more bandwidth.

Nest app

1. Open the Nest app
2. On the home screen, select your camera.
3. Tap Settings  .
4. Tap Quality and bandwidth .
5. Slide the toggle to change the video quality for your camera.
   • The 'Low' option uses the smallest amount of bandwidth.
   • The 'High' option uses more bandwidth.

What happens when you change the video quality

Resolution in the live stream and video history

When you pick a video quality setting, you’re picking the quality of the live video stream and the quality at which the video gets recorded and saved. You won’t be able to go back and watch your saved video at a higher video quality.

How the video quality adjusts automatically based on your phone’s wireless connection (Nest app only)

Note: Only the Nest app automatically adjusts the video quality of your Nest camera depending on your phone’s wireless connection. If you use the Home app, the video quality will only adjust depending on your camera’s video quality settings and its Wi-Fi connection.

If the Nest app detects a fast connection, it will play your video at a higher quality and resolution. On a slow connection, it lowers the quality and resolution to help reduce video pauses.

So, even if you’ve set your camera to a higher video quality setting, you might get a low-resolution version on your device if you have a slow connection.

Switch to a Wi-Fi network with plenty of bandwidth if you want to watch video at the full quality setting that you chose.

	Wi-Fi	5G mobile	4G or LTE mobile	3G or 2G mobile
Maximum resolution for Nest camera video	1080p (720p for Dropcam or Dropcam HD)	1080p (720p for Dropcam or Dropcam HD)	720p	224p (400 x 224 pixels)

Small gaps in video history

After you change the quality and bandwidth setting, your camera will take a moment to restart and switch to the new video quality setting. There might be a few seconds gap in your video history while your camera restarts.

Troubleshoot issues

If your camera frequently disconnects, or if the other Wi-Fi devices in your home seem slower than normal when your camera is streaming, try lowering your camera’s quality and bandwidth setting to help fix the immediate issue.

If this persists, try to troubleshoot the root cause, which is usually a Wi-Fi connection issue.