Google Home for web: Now comes with camera history, clip downloads, and more

Google announced that the company is bringing the most requested camera features to Google Home for web.

The upcoming release will include features like a full camera experience for Nest cameras and doorbells with event and timeline history, the ability to create custom clips to download and share, and picture-in-picture support for live camera views.

With all these features, Google Home for the web will soon be available to the public. However, if you want to try the features early, you can opt-in to the Public Preview.

Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell features

Camera history

• Will be adding more camera features to home.google.com.
• Can stay informed even after an event happens & use larger screens to view them
• Use your browser to check your camera history to ensure everything is fine at your home or office.
• Check your history with the new event and timeline views.
• Look for a specific date and time.
• Can download clips to share your favorite moments.
• Option to subscribe to Nest Aware Plus for 24*7 video history playback on the web.

Custom clips from your video history 

• Capture and share important moments.
• Option to customize the clip’s duration before you download it from the camera’s video history.
• Allows you to select the start time & adjust the clip by sliding the editor to get the desired length.
• Use a set of options to choose the start time and clip length to trim an event video clip.
• With a Nest Aware Plus subscription, you can download clips from any party of your video history.

These features will also come to the Google Home mobile app. As of now, the supported devices as mentioned on the Google Nest Community page are:

• Nest Cam (indoor, wired, 2nd gen)
• Nest Cam with Floodlight
• Nest Cam (outdoor or indoor, battery)
• Nest Doorbell (wired, 2nd gen)
• Nest Cam Indoor (1st gen) 
• Nest Doorbell (battery)
• Nest Cam Outdoor (1st gen)

If you plan to opt-in to Public Preview Updates, you need to go to the Google Home app, then tap Settings>Public Preview>Join Public Preview. You will be notified once the Public Preview is available and can accept or decline the request.

Here are the features available to try in Public Preview:

• Script Editor for Home Automation – Navigate to home.google.com to view, create, delete, or deactivate scripted automation for your home. If you have been creating automation and using Help Me Script features, you need to join Public Preview to keep using them.
• Garage door detection for Nest Aware subscribers—With advanced AI-powered image detection and improved built-in on-device intelligence, this feature is compatible with wired Nest Cams and can notify you if you forget to close the garage door.
• Expanded support for first-generation Nest Cams – Allows you to transfer your device to the Google Home app to try the new camera history experience, including the ability to review camera history with event list and timeline views in both Google Home in web and app.

Apart from this, in the blog post, Product Manager also mentioned:

Garage door detection is in Public Preview and available in the Google Home app for the US and Canada to users that have a Nest Aware subscription and own a Nest Cam (indoor, wired, 2nd gen) or a Nest Cam (battery) when wired for power.  Camera history on the web prior to 3/7/24 may not include audio in events for the first generation Nest Cam Indoor and first generation Nest Cam Outdoor. Events after 3/7/24 will include recorded audio

What are your thoughts on this announcement, and will you be joining the Public Preview, share your opinions in the comments section below.