Google Finally Gives Nest Camera Owners The News They've Been Waiting For
In October 2022, Google announced an overhaul for the Home app that reimagined the app's UI and added some convenient new features. It had been limited to a preview testing phase among a small number of users, but at I/O 2023, Google said that it is now widely available to all users. Brimming with "over 50 improvements and new features," the new Home app aims to make life easier for Nest camera owners, in particular.
Starting with the design, the app gets a makeover with a new five-tab look for large-screen devices and a cool new mini-player system, as well. Google is also optimizing the app for landscape and portrait viewing and says everything from event lists to the camera timeline view will adapt seamlessly to the screen orientation. This capability will roll out in public preview to Android devices in July, while an expansion to iOS is slated for sometime this summer.
In the same month, the app will also extend support for the first-generation Nest Cam models. That's long-awaited good news for the owners of older devices, as it allows them to access all of their IoT gadgets within a single app. There's also a new Google Home panel that will offer some of the app's core features right on the lock screen. For owners of the new Google Pixel Tablet, this feature will be available even when the slate is mounted atop the speaker hub. It'll also let you send a quick response or have a back-and-forth conversation with the two-way talk channel. The panel will first arrive on Pixel phones and tablets next month with a Pixel Feature drop update.
Convenient and versatile
The company is expanding Matter support to the app's iOS version, starting with the release of iOS 16.5 in the coming weeks. Users will soon be able to set up their Matter-certified devices with their iPhones, and will no longer be limited to using the Samsung SmartThings or Apple Home apps for setting up Matter and Works with Google Home-cleared smart home devices.
On the functional side, the Google Home app also gets a new Favorites tab that lets users bundle some of their most frequently used devices in a dedicated cluster. While this sounds convenient in itself, the Favorites tab will be the first thing users see when they launch the app. Notably, the Favorites tab will also show a live feed of the Nest cameras, which means users will no longer have to perform multiple taps and scroll pages to access the live camera view.
Google also enhanced the pace of certain Nest camera tasks, such as a 34% speed boost at launching the camera feed and a 22% improvement at finding the camera clips. Talking about clips, the updated Google app also introduces new event labels divided across categories like person, animal, vehicle, and delivery, among others. All the actionable notifications get a new home in the Inbox area, while the Activity Tab now hosts all events and the camera history sorted chronologically.