Nest Cams are getting these new features on Google Home for web

Google has announced that in the next few days, Nest Cam users will finally be able to view and download recorded clips and scroll through their event timeline on its new home.google.com web portal. While you’ve been able to view livestreams from here, if you want to see what happened earlier, you need to go to the Google Home app.

The company also says it’s bringing the ability to create custom clips from recorded footage both on the web and in the app, finally bringing the full functionality of its Nest cameras to its own platform. These features will require a Nest Aware subscription, starting at $8 a month.

Google first promised to bring a web view to its cameras in 2021, but it didn’t materialize until 2022. Then, it was limited to live view, was only for newer Google Nest cams, and you had to sign up for Google’s public preview. Now the interface is coming out of public preview and is available to everyone (although the preview will still exist as a way to try out new features such as Garage Door detection before their full rollout, you can opt in here).

Older Nest Cam users (pre-2021) could view live and recorded footage at home.nest.com, but only see a live view in Google’s interface. In either case, users could still access the Nest app or Google Home app to see clips and download them.

If you have both vintages of Nest cams, you are likely still switching between the two apps and two web portals. While you can view livestreams from all cameras in the Google Home app, the recorded footage for older Nest Cams can only be found in the Nest app, and you can’t use the newer ones in the Nest app. This is both confusing and annoying.

Now, Nest Cam users will be able to take advantage of both a larger screen and enhanced clip-making options. It’s not clear which older Nest cams will work (we’ve reached out to Google for clarification), but it is likely all the newer Google Nest Cams and the older Nest Cams that have been transferred to the Google Home app. Picture-in-picture viewing is also slated for Google Home for web.

Additionally, the blog post says that the custom clips feature — which lets you pick a start and end time from any recording and turn it into a clip — will roll out in the next few weeks both on the web and in the Google Home app. It will come to Nest Cam (indoor, wired, second gen), Nest Cam (outdoor or indoor, battery), Nest Cam with Floodlight, Nest Doorbell (wired, second gen), Nest Doorbell (battery), and Nest Cam Indoor (first gen) and Nest Cam Outdoor (first gen).

With every improvement to the Google Home app, including its web interface, we’re moving closer to the death of the Nest app. Now, arguably, the only thing still keeping the app alive is that it’s the only way to set up and control a Google Nest Protect smoke alarm.