Alerts are notifications you receive on your phone or tablet when your Google Nest camera or doorbell detects important activity. Camera notifications are managed in the Google Home app or the Nest app.
How alerts work
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Home app settings are off by default. Learn how to turn notifications on or off.
- The notification options you get depend on the type of camera you have and whether you're subscribed to Google Home Premium.
- You can choose to receive notifications for everything your camera detects, or choose notifications for only certain types of activity.
- You need to separately set up alerts for each camera and doorbell in your home.
- If others can control devices in your home, each person can set their own camera alert preferences in the app.
- If you've turned on critical alerts, you may receive some push notifications even when your phone is set to Do Not Disturb mode.
- Some camera alerts are always on and can’t be turned off to keep you informed about important events like:
- When your camera goes offline.
- If the camera was removed from the app.
- The camera detects tampering.
Change camera alerts
To enable notifications for your camera or change which kinds of alerts you get, go to the app you use to control your camera.
- Open the Google Home app
.
- Tap Favorites
or Devices
.
- Tap Home
All devices
, then touch and hold your device's tile.
- Tap More
Here are more notification settings you can change for your camera:
| Settings | Description |
| Push notifications | When enabled, you can receive camera alerts as long as you're signed into the app. |
| Away-only notifications | When this is on, you can only receive camera alerts when your home is set to Away mode. This ensures you won't be disturbed by notifications when someone is at home. |
| Seen activity types |
Turn notifications on or off for things like motion, people, or animals. This list can vary depending on your camera or doorbell model and if you have a Google Home Premium subscription. |
| Home app event settings |
Changes to your camera's event settings will affect your notifications. You'll receive notifications only for the types of events that are turned on. To turn specific video events on or off:
|
- Open the Nest app.
- On the home screen, tap Settings
- Select the camera that you want to change alert settings for and select from the options below.
Notification type
- Push notification: Alerts pop up on your phone, just like alerts from other apps. You can receive notifications as long as you're signed into the app.
Tip: When you close the Nest app, it doesn't sign you out. You can continue to receive notifications even if the app is closed. - Email: Alerts are sent from notifications@nest.com to the email address you use to sign into your account in the Nest app. You can get emails whether or not you're signed into the app.
When to send
- No one's home: This option sets your camera to send notifications only after your home has switched to Away.
- Always: When this option is selected, your camera sends notifications regardless of whether you're home or away.
Important: When it’s dark outside, the distance your doorbell or camera can detect a package may be shorter due to low lighting conditions.
Nest cameras and doorbells help show you what's going on at home, but the technology isn't perfect. We try to make our camera events as accurate as possible, but these can happen:
- A picture can be confused with a real event. For example, a t-shirt with a picture of a dog might trigger an animal detection event.
- A person crawling on the ground can be misidentified as a pet.
- Close relatives can be misidentified.
- For complete details about alerts and notifications, select your camera or doorbell in What you get with a Google Home Premium subscription. The alerts and notifications you can get vary by device and whether you have a Google Home Premium subscription or not.
- Your camera can use advanced algorithms to improve its motion and sound detection and send you better notifications with a Google Home Premium subscription.
| Type of alert | Description |
| Events | Common event notifications that you can get include detected people, motion, animals, and vehicles. For more information, go to How Nest cameras detect sound and motion. |
| Familiar face detection | Familiar face detection teaches your Nest camera how to tell the difference between the faces you know and don't know. Over time, it starts to recognize people you know and send you more helpful alerts. For more information, go to Familiar face detection. |
| Garage door detection |
Important: Garage door detection is supported in the US and Canada only. Garage door detection lets you set up your Nest camera so you get notifications when your garage door opens, closes, or is left open. If you have a 1st gen Nest Aware subscription, you need to upgrade to a Google Home Premium subscription and use a specific Nest Cam Model before you can use garage door detection. Supported Nest Cameras are:
For more information, go to Set up garage door detection with your Nest camera. Tip: For Nest Cam (battery), you must connect it to another power source before it can be used for Garage door detection. |
| Activity Zones alerts | Activity Zones let you mark a specific area in your camera's range that you want to get alerts for. Your camera can send alerts and record an event in your camera's video history when there's important motion in the zone that you have created. For detailed information, go to Set up and use Activity Zones. |
| Technical problems | Your camera can also notify you when it has technical issues, such as when it goes offline. These alerts can help you troubleshoot when your camera isn't working as intended. |
| Email Notifications |
Important: This option is only available for cameras in the Nest app. If you choose to get notifications sent to your email address, the email should include a snapshot image of the activity your camera spotted. You can download these snapshots to your phone or your computer's hard drive. |
Troubleshoot notifications
For general troubleshooting and if you experience issues like:
- Too few camera alerts
- Too many camera alerts
- Unwanted alerts or false positives
- Delayed notifications
You can go to the Help Center article Troubleshoot Nest camera alerts.