So not sure if this is permissible to say here, but In a lead up to the AMA on Friday …
For those concerned about Wyze cams and their scripting and automation and integration with third parties such as Alexa and Google, Wyze is miles ahead of trillion dollar Google currently.
Over 3 years after the beginning of Nest app transition to Google Home, I still have 3 of my 4 Nest cams on the old Nest app as $trillion Google has very little to offer in the Google Home app.
And yes, I am definitely a supporter of Wyze doing better on cams, automation etc. From my point of view they are miles ahead of Google.
I don’t think you’re wrong. I think we may have different use cases and expectations. The Google Home app was my entry into smart home things when my parents received a Smart Light Starter Kit that included a Google Home Mini (1st Gen, so non-Nest) smart speaker and a GE C-Life (which then became “C by GE” and now “Cync”) smart bulb that I set up for them and then expanded later with more bulbs and another speaker. My “gateway drug” to the Wyze ecosystem was the original Plug so they could control Christmas lights with their voices or Google Home Routines.
Because I started down this path with Google Home, I still use it the most for automation and centralizing control and have generally found the third-party integrations to work pretty well, but I’ve also recently begun using Alexa more and now have two different voice assistants I can talk to in order to control things around the house. I haven’t ever used any of the Nest-branded stuff, though.
Why not? I like reading others’ opinions. That’s one way I learn new things!
The some of Nest cam functionality has been lost with Google Home for Nest cams and the automation is very limited. I will add some examples …
Two examples
on Nest app for Nestcams I can record any portion of the 7x24 history. On Google Home app, (the replacement for Nest app) I can only record events Google Home tags. Google Home misses 100s of events daily which I can no longer record.
Nest app has 4 coloured activity zones which showed up in swim lanes in the feed. We used to be able to write scripts to take action on each of 4 activity zones. This kind of made each cam equivelent to 4 cams as I had different scripts for driveway, front yard, garden. Google Home does not show the coloured swim lanes nor does it provide the activity zone tags for scripts.
Nest app for cams allows for skip forward/back 15 seconds. Google Home app does not.
Nest app has smart zoom to allow for zoomed in recording to allow cam to be out of the way but zoomed to area of interest for recording. Google Home app does not.
Scripting was like routines on Nest app which is now gone. Google Home Now requires programming language for scripts (pros & cons to this) other than very basic for Cams.
New functionality for Nest cams is negligible.
Google staff no longer provide any input (or very little) on the Google Nest forum and Google Home forum related to Nest cams for past year.
No road map for Nestcams.
Migration to new app for Nest cams is now 3 years old. With stay tuned messages… and why haven’t you moved messages … many frustrated users … many have left …
Nest Protect smoke alarm support dropped by Google (Home). Only supported (kind of) on Nest.
And so on…
Some of other Google Home supported products get some more support from Google. Nest cams is negligible … Dropcams (original cams in 2009 Dropcam - Wikipedia ) used to get regular futures updates from the founders/design team … bought by Nest & then Google (multi$Billion company)…
I also learn from these posts! Your intro thru plugs at Christmas reminds me of my early 1990s leap into X10 for Christmas lights, motion activation and also to randomly control our lights when we travelled. I was still using their X10 home automation program up until last year as they have a ‘ no neutral wire’ light switch that I used up until recently.
I am glad you have some good use cases for Google Home. I have Apple Home, Google Home & Alexa. My goto currently is Alexa with over 100 connected devices(many Wyze now) including blinds, lights, cams, plugs, switches, AC, heaters, sensors, TV, sprinklers, dishwasher, air quality, air cleaners, weather, …
… and wife going yikes !! (not connected)
One of my favorite Nestcam features is their 4 colored swim lanes for their 4 separate ‘zoomed in’ activity zones which started with the Dropcams in 2009. Google has dropped interest in this feature unfortunately. I used to be able to turn on lights and warning based on activity in each zone at different times of the day. Google turned this capability off about 2 years ago.
… And on we go …
That seems like quite a setup you have! I’d definitely be interested in blinds sometime; I’d really like to be able to automate those for lighting/heating/cooling purposes. I already have several appliances, TVs, streaming devices, lights, plugs, switches, smart speakers, smart display, and cameras connected to Google Home, and that’s what I use most for routines (though I might start moving some stuff over to Amazon Alexa because it can natively schedule every-other-week routines, and Google Home can’t—at least not that I’ve seen in the app).
What you’re describing about “swim lanes” makes me think of a Wishlist topic I was reading recently, requesting multiple detection zones on the same camera. Your description indicates Nest and Dropcam have already had this for a while.
Like I said, I haven’t used any Nest-branded devices with Google Home, but given the simplistic interface of the Google Home app, I can’t imagine that it’s very camera-centric—it isn’t with third-party cameras, anyway; hopefully the experience is better with actual Google/Nest devices. Still, if the Nest app that you used before gave access to more features than you have now in the Google Home app, then I would definitely share your frustration if I had that experience.
Yes we have had this since ~2009. Each zone is colored, and before Google took it away, we could trigger actions (lights, messages, etc.) based on activity in each of 6 zones. You can see the 4 colored swim lanes. There are actually 2 more as well, 1 for sound and 1 for not in zones. The colored swim lanes are gone in the Google Home view of cam. This view is from older Nest app interface which is only available for older Nest cams.
As you can see the browser view had the colored dots horizontal and the app is vertical.
I made the suggestion, I think in wishlist, for this a couple of years ago.
I must say, very well said in everything, ive not used much of Google at all but I must say that your explanation of everything and your clarity and insight gave a non-user to stuff such as myself an excellent idea of what has been going on and how they’ve been used. Thank you very much for your explanation of things. This is exactly why the Maven team does what we do. Not only can we help people but man does the community have a wealth of knowledge that we can pull from and this definitely helped me!
