Emergency calling with Nest Aware

If you are a Nest Aware subscriber in the US, you can use the Google Home app  to quickly contact an emergency call center close to your home even if you’re far away*, like when you’re on vacation. 

Make sure the speakers and displays covered by your Nest Aware subscription are at your home’s physical address before you use emergency calling, otherwise this feature may not work.

Important: If there’s a dangerous emergency in your home (like a fire, carbon monoxide leak, or an intruder) leave immediately and call 911 from a safe location.

Set up Emergency Calling

You’ll set up Emergency Calling when you first set up features for your Nest Aware subscription.

During setup, you may need to enter your address in the Home app. Your address is checked against a 3rd party database of addresses approved to receive emergency services. 

When you use Emergency Calling, your address is also used to make sure your call is routed to the 911 call center closest to your home.

If you turn Emergency Calling off, or change your address, you’ll need to go through set up again. 

Before you begin setup make sure that:

• You are physically in your home 
• You have a paid subscription to Nest Aware 
• You have a working internet connection
• You have the latest version of the Home app installed on your phone.
• To make emergency calls from the Home app, you’ll need to have a Nest Camera or have sound detection enabled on your speakers or displays (like the Google Home or Google Nest Hub)
• Location permissions are turned on for the Home app in your phone's Settings

Set up Emergency Calling

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Settings
3. Tap Subscriptions  Nest Aware  Emergency calling.
4. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete setup.
5. Return to the Emergency calling screen in Settings to check your verification status. Verification usually takes about one minute to complete.

If your address hasn’t been verified, go to this troubleshooting article for more help. Until your address is verified, your 911 calls will be routed to a national 911 call center.

Note: When you call emergency services from the Home app, the number you call from will be shown to the 911 call center.

Turn off Emergency Calling

When you turn Emergency Calling off, you turn it off for everyone you share the Nest Aware subscription  with. To turn Emergency Calling back on, go through the steps in “Set up Emergency Calling” again.

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Settings   Nest Aware  Emergency calling.
3. At the bottom, tap Turn off Emergency Calling.

Update your address

• You need to have an address set up in the Home app in order for Emergency Calling to work.
• When you change your address, you’ll need to repeat the set up process.
• If you remove your address from the Home app, certain features will become unavailable, including Emergency Calling.
• If you need to change your address, you’ll need to go through the Emergency Calling setup process again.
• If you change your home address to an address outside of the US, Emergency Calling won’t be available.Before you use emergency calling.

How emergency calling works

Normally, if you dial 911 from your cell phone, your call is routed to the 911 call center closest to your phone’s location. 

Nest Aware’s Emergency Calling connects you to the 911 call center closest to your home, based on the home address you enter in the Google Home app . This lets you quickly contact your local emergency services no matter where you are, even if you’re far away from home.* So if you’re away from home and use Nest Aware Emergency Calling, you’ll be routed to a call center that can dispatch emergency responders to your home’s location.

Use emergency calling

If you have a Nest camera or you have sound detection enabled on your speakers or displays, you can easily call emergency services in the Google Home app using a phone that can make phone calls.

There are a few places where you can make an emergency call.

• Sound detection events 
  • Emergency events appear in Activity  if the sound of a smoke alarm, carbon monoxide alarm, or breaking glass is heard by your speakers or displays. Emergency Calling is only available in emergency events for a limited amount of time following the event. Tap Emergency  at the bottom of the screen.
• Camera events
  • Emergency calling appears in all saved camera clips that appear in Activity . Tap the thumbnail of the video clip to switch to the live view for that camera. Emergency Calling is on the bottom right. Reminder: Not all camera events are emergency situations.
• Camera live view
  • Select the camera that covers the area you need to open the live video feed. Near the bottom of the screen, tap More  Call emergency services.

Important: Before you call emergency services, make sure the event is an actual emergency. Tap Play  or Listen live on the event, or use your Nest camera to find out what’s going on in your home.

If you need to use Emergency Calling:

1. Tap the camera or event menu  E911   Call emergency services.
2. Tap Call. The phone number that appears on screen will connect you to the 911 call center closest to your home.
   • You’ll see this 10 digit number in your phone's call history instead of 911.
   • The Home app uses this number to route your call to the emergency call center closest to your home.
   • This number is not a direct number to the emergency call center. 
   • This is a temporary number. You should not use this number to make further phone calls to 911.

*Available only where the Google Home app is supported.

Disclaimer: This feature depends on network connectivity and other factors, and may not be available in all areas. Wireless devices may not be reliable for emergency communications. The 911 feature will connect you with the 911 call center covering the home address you provide during setup of this feature.