Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I did a lot of research before choosing the NEST cams. And I really wanted to like them… But after using them (one indoor, one outdoor) for two months I simply cannot recommend. It was a very frustrating experience and I wouldn’t buy if I had to do it all over again. I tried to be as specific as possible to clearly define my exact issues and complaints. Perhaps folks can suggest solutions/workarounds. The NEST app is not intuitive, difficult to navigate, and buggy --- to the point of being maddening when you first start using it. My whole reason for going with NEST is that I thought the interface and features would be well-designed. I was wrong. I expected better from them. Here are my main issues: 1. After initial setup I had to delete & reinstall both my cameras because each was under a different ‘Home’. If you use the “+” button in upper right corner it will add a 2nd Home… you must go under 1st Home and choose “Add Product” under the tools pulldown in order to add additional cameras --- completely non-intuitive and not how most apps use the “+” button (eg. TP-Link KASA app uses the same “+” button to add devices). I would think that many users would fall into this same trap. The only way out is to delete everything and start over. Not a good way to start… 2. NEST has ensured that this camera is not useful unless you pay for a subscription. They do this by eliminating most of the features if you don’t have one (Zone motion triggers, person detection, see past video, etc). Without a subscription you get ZERO video archive (some reviewers were saying it was limited to 3hrs or 12hrs, but this is false). You only get a still picture of motion or generic sound alarm that occurred WITHIN THE LAST 3 HOURS, and the still may or may not actually have the image of what generated the alarm. So if something happens in the middle of the night you won’t have a record of it the next morning. They are trying very hard to make this camera equivalent to a live-only camera unless you buy their subscription! 3. This is a cloud-based system, meaning that you have NO WAY to view any video unless sending to the cloud. The bandwidth usage is completely outrageous! I got an email from my internet provider after two weeks stating that I exceeded my quota of 300GB/mo. I was uploading 5GB per day for ‘Medium’ quality! For two cameras on high quality it consumes 600GB per month! The app gives data/bandwidth requirements under “Quality and Bandwidth” pulldown, along with data hog warning – see screencap below. This is ridiculous and will exceed most internet provider data plans. So I can only turn on the cameras for a few hours each day and reduce the video quality --- so what’s the point of paying for “high def” cameras if I can’t use them? And why pay even more for a subscription if I can’t fully utilize it? And it isn’t possible to use cameras at all without sending to cloud, so now I am wishing I had bought something else… 4. The NEST app provides integration with the TP-Link ‘KASA’ app, specifically: When toggling between “Home/Away” mode you can trigger specific SCENES. I have my TP-Link color LED bulb in Foyer turn GREEN or RED (RED=Away, GREEN=Home) anytime the NEST app sees that I physically leave my house (linked to my phone location) or someone manually toggles “Home/Away” which also turns my cameras ON/OFF. This manual toggle can be done either within NEST app OR the KASA app (icon added under devices—see screencap below). In KASA, my wife can see the color of the bulb and shows what time I left (or arrived) at the house. - Note: You can independently schedule cam ON/OFF times and this does not impact “Home/Away” status (ie. lights do not change status) - Warning: Periodically my indoor cam does not shut off when status changes to “Home”. If I don’t notice right away, eats up a lot of my data quota! - Warning: Every time you logout and log back in you will have to reconfigure the “Home/Away” settings – no way around this. Bad software! - Warning: The linkage between the KASA and the NEST app keeps breaking… doesn’t work as advertised. I completely wasted my money… 5. Software issues on the NEST side --- all day 1/4/18 I was unable to view live video or turn the cameras ON or OFF. The cams were indeed working and could view past video from this timeframe. After more than 1hr of troubleshooting I gave up. Today everything is suddenly working properly again. I figure it must have been an issue on the NEST side… That is the problem with cloud-based systems, you are dependent on their systems to work as well as yours. 6. Not a big deal, but every time you install a new camera (or delete and reinstall existing camera) as I have had to do numerous times, it gives completion error msg: “Oh No! Something has gone wrong”, even though everything has installed correctly. I really hate this software. In summary, the NEST cameras are not reliable and I will avoid NEST products in the future.