What you need to know
- The December 17 Google Home update (version 2.47.78.2) brings UI enhancements for video history playback.
- Video event history can now be easily scrubbed through by using the new next and previous buttons.
- The latest Nest cameras are required to use the Google Home app for management and video playback instead of the Nest app.
The Google Home app just got a small update (via 9to5Google) that's a big deal for anyone who uses Google's 2021 Nest Cam cameras. Within the camera event history, three new buttons make it easy to play, pause, and skip between motion events with a single tap.
Previously, users would have to drag the timeline backward or forward to find motion events, or navigate to the full event history pane to find a list of events. Scrubbing the timeline took a significant amount of time — especially if events were few and far between one another — and there were no visual cues to indicate where the next event was located on the timeline.
With the launch of the 2021 Nest cameras — that includes the indoor wired Nest Cam, Nest Cam (battery), and Nest Cam with Floodlight — Google migrated the user experience from the existing Nest app to the new cameras section of the Google Home app. This was jarring for users who already had Nest cameras, as older Nest cameras are still managed through the Nest app.
Google says it's planning on moving all Nest cameras over to the Google Home app in a future update and has since added support for several other camera brands in the Google Home app.
The new Nest cameras still have a ways to go before they can be considered the best outdoor security cameras, but updates like this make big steps to fixing some of the software issues users faced since the launch of the new cameras.
Nest Cam (wired)
Google's most affordable Nest Cam is designed for indoor use and offers nearly all the smart features you'd expect. The versatile indoor camera also offers HDR video quality with the ability to detect people, animals, and vehicles.
