Google finally brings all its Nest Cam features to Google Home for the web

Google has announced that over 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. Although you can watch the livestream from here, if you want to see what happened first, you'll have to go to the Google Home app.

The company also says it's bringing the ability to create custom clips from recorded footage to both the web and app, ultimately bringing the full functionality of its Nest cameras to its platform. These features will require a Nest Aware subscription, which starts at $8 per month.

Google first promised to bring a web view to its cameras in 2021, but that didn't happen until 2022. At the time, it was limited to Live View, only for the new Google Nest Cam, and you had to sign up for Google's public preview. The interface is now coming out of public preview and available to everyone (though the preview will still exist as a way to try out new features like garage door detection before their full rollout, you can opt out here).

Older Nest Cam users (before 2021) could see live and recorded footage on home.nest.com, but Live View could only be seen in Google's interface. In any case, users can still access the Nest app or Google Home app to watch clips and download them.

If you have both vintages of Nest Cams, you're probably still switching between the two apps and the two web portals. While you can watch livestreams from all cameras in the Google Home app, recorded footage from 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 disturbing.

Now, Nest Cam users will be able to take advantage of both the larger screen and advanced clip-making options. It's unclear which older Nest Cams will work (we've contacted Google for clarification), but presumably all new Google Nest Cams and older Nest Cams have been moved to the Google Home app. Picture-in-picture view is also slated for Google Home for web.

Additionally, the blog post says that the Custom Clip feature – which lets you choose the start and end time from any recording and turn it into a clip – will be available on both the web and the Google Home app in the next few weeks. These are Nest Cam (indoor, wired, 2nd generation), Nest Cam (outdoor or indoor, battery), Nest Cam with Floodlight, Nest Doorbell (wired, 2nd generation), Nest Doorbell (battery), and Nest Cam Indoor (1st generation) ) and Nest Cam Outdoor (1st generation).

With every improvement to the Google Home app, including the web interface, we are getting closer to the end 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 the Google Nest Protect smoke alarm.