Change Nest notification settings

Each of your Google Nest products can send you alerts to let you know when something in your home needs your attention. Whether it's push notifications to your phone, emails, or both, they'll try to alert you about important events, emergencies, and technical issues.

After you add a compatible product to your account in the Google Home or Nest app, you can change notification settings. If you ever want to change those settings, select Notifications in the app's Settings menu.

Change notification settings with the app

Note: The app you use to change notification settings is the same one you used to first set up your product. For instance, you'll use the Nest app to change Nest Protect notifications, and the Home app for Google speakers and displays.

Home app

Notifications in the Home app are set to off by default. If you're setting up the app for the first time, or you're adding a new device to your home, the app will ask you if you want to turn notifications on. If you keep notifications off, you won't receive alerts about activity in your home, such as if a camera detects motion or if someone has rung the doorbell.

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Settings Notifications.
   • If push notifications are not enabled in your device's settings, a banner will appear on the screen. To turn on push notifications in your device's settings, tap the link in the banner and follow the steps.
3. Select General notifications.
4. Turn any notifications on or off.
   • If you turn on critical alerts, but they're not enabled in your device’s settings, a banner will appear on the screen. To turn on critical alerts in your device's settings, tap the link in the banner and follow the steps.

For other notifications in the Home app, go to Manage your Google Home app notifications.

Nest app

1. Open the Nest app.
2. Tap Settings  on the home screen.
3. Select Notifications.
4. Choose the Nest product you want to change notifications for, or select options for Nest Home Report or Rush Hour Rewards. Each item in the list will have different notification options which are summarized below.

Critical alerts

Critical alerts let you know about important events, like a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm, even if your phone's volume is set to low and you've turned on Do Not Disturb. To receive critical alerts from Google Nest, you'll need to turn them on both in General notifications in the Home app and in your phone's settings.

To set up critical alerts:

1. Open the Home app tap Settings Notifications General notifications.
2. Turn on critical alerts.
3. Check for a banner at the top of the screen.
   • If there's a banner that says "Critical alerts are turned off in this device's settings", tap Turn on critical alerts, then follow the steps to complete setup in your phone's settings.
   • If there's no banner, you're all done.

Notification options for each Nest product

For more information about the notification options available for each Nest product, select one of the sections below.

Nest cameras and video doorbells

Alerts for Google Nest camera alerts are a bit more complex than for other Nest products since you can choose motion and sound alert settings, and change how and when you'll get them.

Nest thermostats

Air filter reminder

If you have a forced air heating or cooling system, you can choose to turn the Air filter reminders on or off. These help you know when it's time to change the air filter to keep your system running efficiently.

If you don't have a forced air heating or cooling system connected to your Nest thermostat, you won't see the option to set Air filter reminders in the app or on the thermostat.

Safety Temperatures

Safety Temperatures can help ensure that your pipes don't freeze or that your home doesn't become extremely hot even when your thermostat is set to Off or Eco Temperatures. You'll get a message when your home has reached the Safety Temperatures you've set and a second message when things have returned to normal. As long as Safety Temperatures are set, their notifications are always set to on.

You can turn off Safety Temperatures if you don't want to receive these notifications. But if you do, your thermostat won't help protect your home from extreme temperatures when you're gone.

Furnace Heads-Up

Furnace Heads-Up can also send a message to your phone (if your Wi-Fi and internet connection are working) when there's an issue with your forced air system's filter. You'll get these notifications if you have a Nest thermostat that's been added to your account and set up to control a forced air system. Because this is meant to help protect your system, these notifications are always on. But they should happen rarely.

HVAC monitoring

Get a heads up if your Nest thermostat detects potentially unusual system behavior. You can turn on Urgent alerts to potentially serious system issues that require immediate attention. These will always show in the app feed but emails are optional. You can also choose to turn on Push notifications or turn on Early warnings to get app feed alerts for non-urgent system issues before they become serious.

Savings Finder

Get notified about new energy saving suggestions. You can turn on "Get energy saving suggestions" to get suggestions on how to be more energy efficient, such as temperature adjustments, energy saving programs, and schedules.

Learn about Nest thermostat savings

Nest Protect smoke and CO alarm

Google Nest Protect uses its voice and lights to let you know about potential danger and where in your home it's happening. It can also send notifications to your phone if your home's Wi-Fi and internet connection are working.

Because they're a matter of safety, Nest Protect notifications about smoke, carbon monoxide, low batteries, offline status, expiration, and sensor failure, can't be turned off with the Nest app. So you won't see options for these notifications in the Protect settings menu.

Note: Due to safety regulations, all smoke and CO alarms expire. 1st gen Nest Protect expires after 7 years from the date of manufacture, and 2nd gen Nest Protect expires after 10 years from the date of manufacture. To learn more, visit the When to replace your Nest Protect article.

Sound Check for 2nd gen Protects

The Sound Check self-test that Nest Protect can automatically run each month can send a notification five minutes before the test runs. The notification will give you a warning and let you skip the test if you want.

If you disable the Sound Check test in app settings, you'll no longer get  the pre-test notification, but it's recommended that you keep Sound Check enabled.

Video Clip Alerts

If you have a Nest camera in addition to a Nest Protect and there's a smoke or carbon monoxide emergency, you will get an email that lets you know your camera has saved a video clip recorded during the event. This function is on by default and can't be turned off with the Nest app. It is also dependent on your home's working Wi-Fi and internet connection. Emergency clip recording is OFF by default. To turn it on:

1. Open the Nest app and select your Protect.
2. Tap Settings Works with Protect, then select the cameras you want to record on.

Note: This feature is dependent on your home's Wi-Fi and internet connection.

Nest x Yale Lock

The Google Nest × Yale Lock has a built-in speaker. You'll hear chimes and get some audio alerts on your lock, as well as receive notifications on your phone.

In the app, you can change settings to enable or disable notifications when your door is locked or unlocked.

Tip: If someone uses a passcode or the Nest app to unlock the door, or if they use the Nest app to lock the door, the alert will display the name you gave that person in the Nest app.

You'll also be able to review a 10 day history for your lock in the Nest app.

There are some additional notifications you'll receive from your lock, but you won't be able to turn these off. Some of these notifications include the following:

• When the lock has a low battery
• If someone with Home Entry Only uses a passcode outside of their scheduled time
• When someone enters an incorrect passcode 5 times
• If you lock goes offline for more than 10 minutes
• When your deadbolt is unable to extend or retract
• Tamper detection

Nest Home Report

The Nest Home Report is a monthly email that summarizes activity for all the Nest products in your account in the Nest app like your thermostat's reported energy use, Protect smoke and CO events, and more. If you don't want to get a report emailed to you, you can turn it off. You can also choose the language for your Home Report.

Rush Hour Rewards

Eligible customers can sign up for Rush Hour Rewards with their energy provider. Once you're in the program, you can get notifications on your Nest thermostat and in the Nest or Home app that a rush hour will be happening soon, when it will start, and when it will end.

If you turn off notifications about rush hours, you won't get rush hour notifications on your thermostat or phone.

Learn about Rush Hour Rewards

Set up notifications in a shared Nest home

With Family Accounts, you can share access to your Nest home with other people. However, whenever someone makes a change to their notification settings, it may affect everyone else.

Select your product for more information.

Nest cameras and video doorbells

Each person can set their own preferences, and it won't affect anyone else.

For example, you might want to get a notification every time your camera spots motion, but your spouse might not want to get any notifications. The Nest app lets each of you choose the notifications you want.

Nest x Yale Lock

Each person can set their own preferences, and it won't affect anyone else.

For example, you might want to get a notification whenever someone locks or unlocks the door, but your spouse might not want to get any notifications. The Nest app lets each of you choose the notifications you want.

Nest Home Report

Each person can set their own preferences, and it won't affect anyone else.

For example, you might want to have us send the monthly Nest Home Report to your own email address, but your spouse doesn't want to get it at their email address. The Nest app lets each of you choose separately.

All other Nest products

If you change a notification setting in the Nest app, it will also change that setting for everyone who shares control of devices in your home.

However, each person can change their own notification settings outside of the Nest app.

Create an email filter: If you don't want to get emails, you can create a filter in your email app like Gmail or iCloud Mail to automatically archive or delete emails from Nest.

Change your phone's notification settings: If you don't want to get notifications, you can change your OS notification settings on your Android device or iOS device to block push notifications from the Nest app. Keep in mind that if you do this, you won't be alerted to what's happening in your Nest home.

Override Do Not Disturb mode

Note: This option is only available for Android phones.

When Do Not Disturb mode is on for your phone, you won't receive any app notifications by default. However, you can set the Nest app or Home app to override Do Not Disturb mode so that you can still receive important notifications.

For example, you can allow the Nest app to send alarm notifications from your Nest Protect.

Find out how to let apps override Do Not Disturb mode in the Android help center.