Albeit still not in a completely straightforward way
Google has taken a big step toward making the management of its smart home ecosystem less of a fragmented faff by extending Google Home app support to the Nest Cam IQ Indoor and IQ Outdoor cameras.
That means that now, technically, you can manage all of your Nest Cams in one place.
It’s been a bugbear to many Nest users that they needed to switch between two apps – Google Home and Nest – to view their camera feeds, depending on what models they have.
A bugbear that actually contributed to me breaking my loyalty to the platform… I recently ditched all my Nest Cams in favor of a Reolink setup.
This update, which is part of a Public Preview that is rolling out this week, means you can now transfer and manage all Nest Cams released as far back as 2015 (the original Nest Cam) directly within the Google Home app, eliminating the need to toggle between the Nest and Home apps.
This move is part of Google’s gradual effort to unify its Nest and Home platforms.
Once transferred, you’ll be able to access camera settings, video history in event and timeline views, and live feeds all within the Home app.
The integration also allows for automations, such as linking Nest cameras with other smart devices; think automatically turning on lights when the doorbell rings or having a light glow red if motion is detected.
The Google Home app supports cross-platform functionality, letting you check your live feeds on phones, tablets, TVs, and on the web via home.google.com.
If you’ve got a Nest Hub Max you can also manage its built-in camera directly in the Home app now as well.
However, unlike the Nest Cam IQ cameras, once the Hub Max is transferred, it cannot be reverted to the Nest app.
However, this being Google Home, it’s not a completely seamless experience to set up.
You’ll first have to join the Public Preview via the Google Home app or the Home web portal.
If you’re already signed up, you should see prompts in the Home app to guide you through the transfer process.
While the Nest app remains unchanged for now, Google has confirmed that only the Nest Protect smoke detector and the Nest x Yale smart lock still rely exclusively on the Nest app, so there’s still some app hopping to be done if you use those.
