Nest Aware is a paid subscription service you can use with your Nest products to help keep you informed about important events at your home.
Standard features and upgraded Nest Aware features are different depending on which camera, speaker or display you have and which region your home is in.
Nest Aware features available for different camerasFind your product to know the options available with and without a Nest Aware subscription.
Nest cameras
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Nest Cam Indoor |
Nest Cam IQ Indoor Nest Cam IQ Outdoor |
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Camera with Nest Aware |
Camera with 1st gen Nest Aware |
Camera |
Camera with Nest Aware |
Camera with 1st gen Nest Aware |
Camera |
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Motion |
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Basic motion detection | – | – | ✔ | – | – | ✔ |
Intelligent motion detection using cloud-based algorithms | ✔ | ✔ | – | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Sound |
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Sound detection with 1 microphone | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | – | – | – |
Sound detection with 3-microphone array | – | – | – | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Intelligent sound detection using cloud-based algorithms | ✔ | ✔ | – | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Dog Barking alerts | ✔ | ✔ | – | ✔ | ✔ | – |
People and faces |
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Person Seen alerts | ✔ | ✔ | – | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Familiar face alerts | – | – | – | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Activity Zones |
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Motion in Activity Zone | ✔ | ✔ | – | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Video Enhancements |
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Supersight close-up tracking view | – | – | – | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
5, 10, or 30-day continuous video history | – | ✔ | – | – | ✔ | – |
30 days of event video history with Nest Aware |
✔ | – | – | ✔ | – | – |
Event based recording | ✔ | – | – | ✔ | – | – |
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Doorbell with Nest Aware |
Doorbell with 1st gen Nest Aware |
Doorbell |
Motion |
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Basic motion detection | – | – | ✔ |
Intelligent motion detection using cloud-based algorithms | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Sound |
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Sound detection | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
People and faces |
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Person Seen alerts | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Familiar face alerts | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Packages |
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Package detection | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Activity Zones |
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Motion in Activity Zone | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Package delivered or retrieved in Activity Zone | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Video Enhancements |
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5, 10, or 30-day continuous video history | – | ✔ | – |
30 days of event video history with Nest Aware |
✔ | – | – |
Event based recording | ✔ | – | – |
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Hub Max with Nest Aware |
Hub Max with 1st gen Nest Aware |
Hub Max |
Motion |
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Basic motion detection | – | – | ✔ |
Intelligent motion detection using cloud-based algorithms | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Sound |
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Sound detection with 2 microphone | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Intelligent sound detection using cloud-based algorithms | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Smoke alarm and glass break sound detection (US only) | ✔ | – | – |
Dog Barking alerts | ✔ | ✔ | – |
People and faces |
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Person seen alerts | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Familiar face alerts | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Activity Zones |
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Motion in Activity Zone | ✔ | ✔ | – |
Video Enhancements |
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5, 10, or 30-day continuous video history | – | ✔ | – |
30 days of event video history with Nest Aware |
✔ | – | – |
Event based recording | ✔ | – | – |
Nest Aware uses advanced algorithms to send you more intelligent motion and audio alerts, meaning the alerts you get are more accurate, and you’ll get them at more intelligent times.
Cameras
Depending on which Nest camera model you have, you can also get person seen alerts or familiar face alerts. These alerts let you know when a human (not your pet) has walked in front of your camera.
If you have a Nest Hello, you can also get package alerts when a package is dropped off or retrieved in its view.
Some cameras can send different alerts for different sounds. With Nest Aware, these cameras can tell the difference between a person speaking and a dog barking. You can pick which sounds you want to get alerts about and which ones your camera should ignore.
Note: Smoke alarm and glass break detection is not available for Nest cameras.
These kinds of improvements require a lot of computing power, much more than Nest cameras can deliver by itself. We use powerful cloud servers to make this state of the art detection possible for our Nest Aware subscribers, and we are constantly improving these algorithms to provide the best experience.
Speakers and displays
Your Google Nest and Home speakers and displays can also detect when the sound of a smoke alarm or breaking glass is heard in your home. Nest Aware will notify you in the Home app, where you can check in on what’s happening, and use Emergency calling with the Home app if you need to.
With Activity Zones you can pick up to four areas (per camera) that you want to keep a closer eye on. You’ll always be able to know exactly where and when motion happens.
In the Nest app on your phone or tablet, motion in Activity Zones will appear in your Sightline, along with a snapshot to show you what your camera saw when the motion happened. Your timeline will be marked with your Activity Zone’s color whenever there’s activity in that zone so you can click straight to the action.
Nest Aware comes with up to 60 days of event-based recording (depending on your subscription) that saves clips to the cloud when your camera detects motion or sound. Your video history will show only clips of these motion or sound events. During times with no detected events, It will show grey areas with the text “No events detected.”
When you choose a Nest Aware subscription, you can pick how far back you want your video history to go. To check your Nest Aware subscription options, visit the Google Store.
Note: Event-based recording isn’t available for 1st gen Nest Aware.
Nest Aware Plus and 1st gen Nest Aware have continuous video history. Your camera’s video stream is continuously recorded 24/7 and saved securely and privately in the cloud so that you never miss a moment.
If your Nest camera gets unplugged or stolen, you won’t lose any previously recorded video. You can go back in time and check what you missed, save and download clips, and create timelapses.
Your full video history is always at your fingertips, and you can watch it whenever you want.
- On your phone or tablet, you can use Sightline to quickly find the interesting parts of your video history like when your camera detected motion or sound.
- On your computer’s web browser, you can take advantage of a larger screen and jump to any part of your video history with a few clicks.
If your Nest camera captures a moment you want to remember forever, like your baby’s first steps, Nest Aware lets you save and share it.
You can save clips in the Nest app. A clip can be up to 2 ½ minutes long on a phone or tablet, or up to 60 minutes long on a computer. Once you save a clip, you can:
- Directly share to Twitter, Facebook, Nextdoor, YouTube, or share via email.
- Download the clip so you can store and share it anywhere you like.
Visit the How to create, share and view video clips and timelapses article to learn more.
Timelapses can condense up to 24 hours of video into a 30, 60 or 120 second clip. So you can watch every brushstroke of a detailed painting in just a few seconds, or see what happened during a birthday party in a few minutes.
Learn more about how to make and share a timelapse video in the How to create, share and view video clips and timelapses article.
Consider a Nest Aware Plus subscription if you need up to 60 days of video history, or you need to record any of the following:
- Everything that happens, even if nothing moves or makes a sound
- Children or small animals like cats, squirrels and birds
- People and objects when they don’t move much, like people sitting and eating
- Areas with poor or changing lighting, like many outdoor areas
If you don’t need to record any of the above, and you only need 30 days of video history, you may prefer Nest Aware for events-only recording in situations like these:
- Your camera monitors an indoor area, and you only need to record adults entering, leaving, and walking across the room.
- You have a doorbell camera, and you only need to record activity at your door.
- Your camera monitors an outdoor area, and people are clearly visible within your camera's field of view.
You’ll use the Google Home app and the Nest app to get the most out of your Nest Aware subscription.
Home app
You’ll use the Home app to find the Home Feed, event-based video clips, sound detection alerts (US only), and other notifications.
Nest app
On the Nest app, some features of Nest Aware work differently depending on which device you’re using. Here’s what you can expect.
On a phone or tablet | On a computer at home.nest.com | |
Easily look through all your motion, sound or Activity Zone markers. |
✔ |
✔ |
Watch all of your camera’s video history. |
✔ |
✔ |
Create and share clips from your video history. |
✔ Up to 2 ½ minutes long |
✔ Up to 60 minutes long |
Use Sightline to quickly and easily check exactly when and where your camera detected activity. Tap snapshot thumbnails to jump directly to important events. |
✔ |
– |
View your video history timeline by the hour, minute, or second. Click on markers to jump to moments your camera spotted activity. |
– |
✔ |
Create and share timelapses. |
– |
✔ |
Create and edit Activity Zones. |
✔ |
✔ |