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At the Made By Google event in New York today, Google announced a raft of new devices for the home, including a Nest Mini, Nest Wi-Fi Router and access point, Pixel Buds, and Pixelbook Go, as well as the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones. But with more smart home devices and more features comes the need to manage it all with as little friction for the end user as possible. Google made two announcements that speak to that need for simplicity, not just in terms of user experience, but regarding price: a new Home Feed app and a simpler two-tiered pricing plan for Nest Aware.
Nest Aware is the app that controls all your Nest Camera devices. You can see live video feeds on your phone, and it saves your recordings for days or longer. Google now ensures that the pricing structure is simplified: Instead of three subscription tiers, with a charge for each device, there are two tiers, and the pricing is the same irrespective of the number of Nest devices that you have, whether it’s two or 10. It covers not just cameras, but Google smart speakers and smart displays, too.
The Nest Aware plan is $6 per month, covers all your devices, and stores “event” video recordings for 30 days. The Next Aware Plus plan costs twice as much at $12 per month, but it offers twice the length of event video storage and includes 10-day 24/7 video history. If you currently have a Nest Aware plan, you’ll be able to roll it over to the new options when they’re available.
The “event” feature is key to the whole operation. It turns all your connected home Google devices into “your ears,” as Google says, always listening for things like barking dogs or a carbon monoxide alarm. When the devices pick up such an “event,” you get a notification on your phone in the Home app. You can actually listen to the audio, so you don’t have to reply on the technology to try to interpret what the audio means. You can also delete any of the audio.
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You can respond to any of the events by using the Home app to call a local 911 operator. That’s important, because if you’re at work and need to send help to your home, you need to connect with emergency services that are close to the problem, not close to you.
If you’re at home and can’t get to your phone, you can contact emergency services by saying, “OK Google, call 9-1-1.” In that way, these smart devices function as accessibility devices for those who may be physically limited.
To help organize all of this information from so many devices, Google is launching Home Feed. “It brings together all the events and notifications from your devices, with a general recap of the day and recent events in your home in one place,” reads a Google blog post. You’ll be able to watch video clips and listen to audio clips directly from the Home Feed.
Both Google Home Feed and the new Nest Aware plans are coming early next year.
