Google - Nest Doorbell (Wired, 1st Gen)

Not directly an answer to your question, but be glad you can't get the Nest doorbell 2nd gen. My first gen died, so I got the 2nd gen wired and it doesn't work with the Nest app (all Nest cams are migrating over to GH app eventually) but the functionality is now terrible. So many previous features have been removed from the UX. Commenting to see what you decide to go with!

If your with smartthings I use the orginal nest door bell. It's facial recognition is really good but with smartthings it only detects motion. But can be linked. But sound like maybe you should take a look with homekit. Heard it's pretty good

The Nest wired doorbell works with this configuration. The only issue kind of doorbell is that it has a small rechargeable battery to keep the circuitry powered during the time the doorbell button is pressed. As with all rechargable batteries, they degrade over time, especially with being exposed to outdoor temperatures. The battery isn't easily replaceable in the original Nest wired doorbell and Google for a long time didn't even admit it had a battery. Eventually, the battery isn't able to power the circuit. Then, when someone rings the doorbell, the doorbell resets, and you can't see who was there. At least the chime still works.

You can run the Google Nest Doorbell (wired or wireless) without a subscription. You get app notifications when someone approaches the camera, whether they're carrying a package, when a package is delivered, and also when the doorbell is pressed. Three hours of video is saved. A [Nest Aware subscription](https://store.google.com/us/product/nest_aware?hl=en-US) ($8/month for all your devices) adds 10 days of video, face recognition, event identification, 911 access. I have the wired version. I do not have a subscription. I had to get a new doorbell transformer to get my doorbell working again. I am very happy with the feature set, video quality, and availability.

I’ve had it for a year now, been rock solid and never have had an issue. For the doorbell chime I have HomePods. 

Google/Nest has really great AI detection. Hella quick. Otherwise it's not really a security camera. Nice to have, super appreciate it being able to recognize faces and tell me when [friend | mail lady] is at the door. It's AI with a camera and doorbell functionality. Ahead of it's time with subpar hardware. The wired functionality let's it integrate directly into your existing doorbell so no other devices needed. If you're looking for a camera with doorbell functionality, go for [Ubiquity / Unify](https://ui.com/us/en/camera-security/special-devices). If you're looking for the cheapest camera option, [Wyze is pretty great](https://www.wyze.com/collections/video-doorbells). But it sucks at everything else. Really you'll get to pick one, maybe two from the list of doorbells out there: Good doorbell (any wired option). Good camera. Good AI. Good integrations (smart home, access control, etc.)

Wired has less issues during extreme cold. Not to mention you don't need to worry about charging lol

I second this! I’ve got the newest nest wired doorbell with 4 wired cameras all on the starling hub and love the HomeKit functionality.

Fun fact - even the wired version has a battery that will eventually fail. It's used to keep the device running when power is momentarily dropped when ringing the bell. Once the battery fails, the device will reboot every time the button is pressed.

I’m rocking a wired nest doorbell, and a starling home hub. So far no issues in HK.

I am in the same boat, I have the best wired doorbell, but I like the homekit system better, especially the schlage lock. So I have been thinking of either adding starling or purchasing a new bell, but nothing seems comparable to the wired nest doorbell.

I've had wired for a while now and it does have issues shutting off during extreme cold or hot. Maybe it's a little more resilient than the battery ones though. I would recommend checking temperature specs for both of them.

I have been very happy with my Nest Wired Doorbell. I had to upgrade my doorbell transformer to power it, but that wasn't too difficult. It records 24/7 if you upgrade your Nest package, which comes in handy when the motion sensor doesn't pick something up. Also, it's good for when you want to see something that the camera wasn't meant to pick up like someone speeding down the road. It has facial recognition and can also tell and notify you if a package was delivered. The only complaint I have is after 3 years the outer "coating" has started peeling off from the harsh 4 season midwest climate we get.

Yes, it's worth it. But buy the wired version!

I went with all Nest hardware when we bought our home about 9 years ago: thermostat, smoke detector, cameras, temp sensors, and eventually doorbell. The equipment is fine, but Google has abandoned the Nest app to push everything to Google Home which looks like garbage. Beware if you are not a fan of Google Home. They are not investing in Nest support and could leave you high and dry in the future. As to wired vs battery, these cameras use a ton of energy. I’m skeptical of how a battery powered option would work long-term. We paid an electrician to install a wired version and it puts off a lot of heat. The heat attracts bugs in cold months. Just a side note.

Nest x YALE lock, nest doorbell cam + starling hub, all works perfect in HomeKit. Very happy with it. Bonus, add nest thermostat 👌🏼

Not technically HKSV out of the box but my wired Google Nest doorbell + starling have honestly been one of the best purchases I’ve made for my smart home.

It depends on what you're looking for. I can't speak to BIFL, but I've had a Google Nest wired doorbell camera for a few years now. No subscription needed, and it saves events for a few hours. You can also adjust the "zone" in which it detects events, which I found helpful so I don't get alerts for when my neighbor across the way comes and goes.

Be wary. Many doorbells have monthly charges for video storage. I've setup a Google one in the fall (hardwired) works great. Though in cold cold winter days, the doorbell doesn't ring our physical house chime. But it still works nonetheless!

I have had a Nest, now google hardwired doorbell camera for 8 years. It stopped working when we had a power failure for 5 hours when it was -30. It started working again when it warmed up in the Spring. I had tried a reset earlier but hadn't gotten around to buying a new one. This was at least 4 years ago. I do pay for monitoring. I have another camera in my garage and one in the house. It's handy when we are away.

I have had a Nest, now google hardwired doorbell camera for 8 years. It stopped working when we had a power failure for 5 hours when it was -30. It started working again when it warmed up in the Spring. I had tried a reset earlier but hadn't gotten around to buying a new one. This was at least 4 years ago. I do pay for monitoring. I have another camera in my garage and one in the house. It's handy when we are away.

My Nest doorbell cam (wired) has never failed to identify a package.

Makes me miss my nest.

Nest is owned by Google. Had their doorbell cam for years. They have next level playback. It's like comparing a PS5 to an Atari. I regret being a cheapskate and changing because I didn't want to pay a $5 subscription. Totally worth it and it is a much better quality product

I use the Nest doorbell, which should be able to retrofit any existing doorbell (i.e. use existing wire and transformer). It is subscription based for more advanced features and accessible from app and a web client.

Nest Doorbell combined with Starling Home Hub is a good option. Never any issues and there are frequent firmware updates.

Imo, they're not bad and actually really decent cameras, the only downside is their cloud reliance. If your ok with them not working when the Internet is down and not having a way to view or store footage on your own unless it's through Google's cloud they're great.

Nest Doorbell is one of the top recommendations from most comparison sites (The Verge, The Wirecutter). Width will be a factor for all smart doorbells, and most will require some screws to install securely. One benefit of Nest is that if you choose to add additional cameras, the subscription fee for 24-7 recording does not increase. As with most doorbells, basic functions will work without any subscription. With the information in your post, a better option (or necessary addition) would be to have your locks rekeyed.

I have Google nest cams/doorbell no subscription and no other "smart home" features setup subscription is for keeping video of events past 30 days, if no subscription used, it retains recordings for 3 hours. Live video is always working as well

I don't need a subscription for my Google nest doorbell

Buffers for like ~~6~~ 3hrs of motion based video events. Goes off alot for lawn care

I could not get ring to connect to my router - it was 2 meters away. returned in - I have a nest one right now but its not wired and I hate having to charge it every week

Used to have google/nest. Now have Wyze and happy.

I just switched from Nest doorbell (slow, cloud based, contains a non-replaceable battery that fails after a few years, and worst yet is the disaster of Google software…) to Reolink. I think it meets all your requirements … had it for a few weeks and really liking it.

Current user of G4 pro non-POE, upgraded from G4. Before that I was using Nest and then Ring. The video quality is excellent, on main camera and the package camera is not so, which is okay for it's purposes. Rings and motion detection is instant. It was a drop in replacement with mechanical chime. Placed about 20ft away from U7 Pro AP with excellent WiFi signal. I would say, POE version may not be worth if you have favourable conditions for non-POE version. But definitely worth comparing other doorbells in the market, especially when you are in Unifi ecosystem.

I use Nest Doorbell with Homebridge. I just sub with Nest for the 24/7 recording.

Google Nest and Ring both have options for how you get alerts and even to set quiet hours. If I recall I could set my nest doorbell to only alert a specific device like a Nest Hub in the bedroom because I could hear the bell that rang downstairs.

The Nest sucks. So glad to be moved on from it. If cost isn’t an issue, a UniFi setup + Homebridge is the best HomeKit doorbell you can get.

IMO, the lineup of available HomeKit doorbells is mediocre to begin with so it isn’t surprising that it beats most of the out-of-the-box options. The resolution is mediocre, requires a subscription for any decent usage, doesn’t have native HomeKit support, and I’m not sure if this is an issue other people have faced but both of my units got an annoying crack on the ring around the camera. It’s a pretty unit, but the big ugly crack that I had kinda negated that. Granted, I already ran a UniFi WiFi setup for my home network so my startup cost for replacing the Nest was just the doorbell. So it made a lot of sense from just a financial standpoint to do it and eliminate the subscription. Not too sure about other cameras as my experience is limited to both generations of the Nest doorbells and the UniFi doorbell.

I have had the two Nest doorbells with the Starling hub and haven’t had any problems with it.

The Nest is an awesome doorbell. Great UI and will store event for 3 hours without subscription. You can also download the event within that 3 hours. Great camera as well.

TP-Link's Kasa or Tapo devices are what you want. Get a large enough memory card and you'll have 24/7 recording for a month. Great quality video as well. I previously had Ring, Nest, and Wyze doorbell cameras, my Tapo doorbell camera is superior to those.

Google Nest Doorbell is great.

White PoE for the win! I've tried the black wifi, white wifi and nest. The Reolink white with PoE is the best one out of all of them. The only black one I tried was wifi and it didn't have package detection, not sure if all the black ones are like that. I use it with home assistant and it loads almost instantly.

Having had both a nest doorbell and a wyze doorbell that both crapped out both in less than 3 years that we've owned this house, I can recommend against those, but don't have a good recommendation.

Sounds like you need a restraining order as well. I’m also in Canada, more specifically Calgary, and have never had issues with my nest doorbell camera. Even at -40°C

I’ve got this exact combo and it’s excellent.

What's living room TV? and why two actions at the same time? two TVs? here's mine. this plays on my Roku which is always on my tv. note, the stream ends up taking about 10-12secs from press to stream, so it's a bit slow. the device is below is my Google nest doorbell. paste doesn't have the right format sorry. sequence: * action: camera.play\_stream metadata: {} * data: format: hls * media\_player: media\_player.roku\_player * target: device\_id: a76ea6689c1233456543221 * alias: "Doorbell Stream " * description: "" * icon: mdi:doorbell-video

You can turn off the camera on the Nest doorbell if you need to

i have the wifi one. I use tinycam pro on my google tv to show all the cameras. When someone rings the doorbell it shows up on all the google homes. I had a nest doorbell before this and bought the reolink with an nvr to get away from cloud costs. You can run it without the nvr with a microsd card but i'm happy with my setup.

He can have my google nest if he wants. Thing is trash compared to this. Can’t believe it.

Get a reolink imo Nest is good, as long as you have good wifi. But without the nest aware subscription, you are limited to event playback in a 3 hour window. With a reolink you wont be tied to a subscription

Only the google nest doorbell is able to alert through google home. You would need home assistant or some other third party integration to work with google home and be able to have visitor announcements with third party doorbells

My experience with the doorbell and user interface made me cancel my nest aware subscription. Our hub constantly disconnects from the doorbell feed. And viewing doorbell live footage is extremely buggy on our pixels. $20+ per month and worked less than half the time. For those reasons I'm out. I'm waiting out my home security contract to upgrade to a whole new system.

I have both a ring doorbell and a nest one and I wish I had two nests

I added the doorbell to Google Home so I could use my Hubs as a chime, but there's a lag of several minutes. I blame Google for this. My Nest Doorbell experienced delays as well, which is why I switched to Reolink among other things. The Reolink Doorbell is much quicker with notifications with about 3 sec delay. Very good for a battery doorbell I gather.

I know you said you didn't want to mess with nest, but the Google one is really nice. You don't need a subscription, I've used it with and without the subscription.

I second this. My Google Nest doorbell and cameras with Starling work better in HomeKit then my native HomeKit cameras.

Reolink is my first option. I had a google nest doorbell and replaced it with a Reolink. The nest was slow at warning me when someone was at the door and pressed the bell. I would get a notification 30 seconds to 3 minutes late and could not interact with the person at the door. I’m in Europe and I feel the google/nest servers are lagging enormously. With Reolink and its HA integration things are local (no laggy google server) and it works great.

I have been using a google nest doorbell along with starling home hub and it’s been flawless. Had HKSV and everything, and is connected to the mechanical chime, which I can silence to not make noise. Requires a nest subscription, but it’s been great.

I ditched my Nest. No regrets.

My skybell was great. Replaced with Google and I don't like it as much.

Were you able to integrate this into google home system to use their speakers as a chime ? I've been back and forward with Reolink support currently with this wifi battery doorbell as there doesn't seem to be any way to turn off sound notifications being sent through to the nest speakers within the house  for motion/people/packages etc unless you disable all push notifications for those items full stop which defeats the purpose of a doorbell giving you notifications when someone approaches.  The google doorbell works well by ringing when pressed and simply sending silent notifications to my phone if the postman walks to the front and just drops off a package without ringing the doorbell. This reolink doorbell however is currently just sending constant sound notifications for every motion.  I've even tried making all notifications " silent " which still doesn't help the situation. 

If I uncheck everything except visitor then when someone approaches the doorbell but doesn't press the button, the camera won't send me a push alert. Google does it well where it sends me the notification, but doesn't play a chime in the house. The only time it plays a chime is when someone actually pushed the doorbell. Reolink however is chiming on all alerts through the google hub. The only way as you mentioned is to turn off everything bar visitor in push schedule, but I want to get alerts when someone comes to the front door but doesn't press the doorbell.

Google would be a better choice IMO, I just sold my Google doorbell for the newest Eufy model and I semi regret it. Google you just place outside and the thing is amazing, the AI is great and I've never had any issues. The eufy... Omg the lighting has to be right or the sensitivity has to be right otherwise it'll miss picking people up and it takes a damn near 2 minutes before it realizes there is a package and then another 2 minutes to tell you it's gone. Although on the contrary when it does work good it works good but there is just to many variables you gotta play around with when Google you just set it and forget it. Just my 2 cents

Yeah I guess every company has their issues. I think the Google doorbell spoiled me because I never had to mess with it once I put it out, I've been messing with the eufy since I bought it. But you're right, I have other issues with my other Google cameras not working sometimes it kinda sucks nothing can just work flawlessly

I can tell you from experience that a bright white google doorbell on C against a brick background, despite how visible and contrasting it is, still results in everyone knocking. I would go A and get a wide angle one

I'm finding notifications for doorbell and motion detection is delayed with Google. Takes like 30 seconds before it get the notification on my phone and by then the delivery driver is gone.

I'm finding notifications for doorbell and motion detection is delayed with Google. Takes like 30 seconds before it get the notification on my phone and by then the delivery driver is gone.

Often people complain due to not knowing how to set it up properly. Detections along with recognition (for those using ai) are all great and acceptable. Definitely more than $300 when taking into consideration the ethernet drop, the ai port and more but I've owned 3 other doorbells (Anker, google and ring) and the UI variant although is more expensive, it does work better than any of those 3.

I have a Nest video doorbell. It does what you want, no subscription needed. The only thing is the history only goes back about 12 hours. Blink is another option. With it I think you have the option of either cloud storage (for a small monthly fee) or local storage (extra equipment required). But just out of the box, it does what you're wanting.

i will 2nd the nest it sends an alert when someone is there. and i can watch live when i need it.

I’ve had the Google doorbell and Starling for quite a while. Video quality is solid. It’s not perfect in HK (maybe 30% of the time I have to use the Google app after an alert) but it’s ok. Mine does works fine with my mechanical chime. That said, I’m slowly transitioning out of Google cams to UniFi cams.

Just don’t! I have a ton of respect for many Aqara products, I have two homes equipped with about 100 various Aqara devices, I tried the doorbell too but I was very disappointed. If you want a doorbell, go to Ring. They are the best. Second I’d say The Google one, it was not too bad but it’s huge.