Best answer: Yes, but it's not without its drawbacks. The new plan covers all Nest devices in your home, and includes advanced audio sensing along with all the features of the old Nest Aware. The only trade-off is fewer days of continuous recording, and the potential loss of some third-party integrations if you switch over.
- A powerful new Wifi mesh router: Nest Wifi Router ($169 at Amazon)
Nest Aware 2.0 is a serious upgrade
Google made some pretty exciting announcements at its October 15 Pixel event in New York. From a smart home perspective, the unveiling of its new Nest Wifi hardware was definitely the high point. Yet that announcement came hand-in-hand with a revelation some users — new and existing alike — might find a bit confusing.
Namely, that Google is changing the subscription model for Nest Aware, the cloud-based service attached to its Nest devices — and the new subscription service is a definite step up from the old. While the new Nest Aware subscription model does make a few bizarre changes, for the most part, it's a total value add. Moreover, it doesn't cost that much more than the old Nest.
That said, if you're already an existing Nest Aware subscriber, Google will allow you to stay with your current plan. This could be a better choice for those of you who don't want to sacrifice your IFTTT integrations, or if you don't have that many Nest devices.
What's changed?
The first, most obvious change involves platform. Rather than using the Nest App, the new Nest Aware will live entirely within the Google Home app. It's a move that makes sense for Google, though it's also one that may frustrate some users, as the migration has reportedly broken IFTTT.
Bafflingly, Google has also cut how many days its Nest devices can continuously record. The old plan offered continuous recording for 5 days ($5), 10 days ($10), or 30 days ($30). Under the new plan, which starts at $6/month, continuous recording is only available if you shell out for Premium ($12/month).
Still, in exchange for losing that bit of functionality, the new Nest Aware adds a ton of value. First and foremost, there's no limit to the number of Nest devices covered by a single subscription. The pricing of the old tiers are by device, so if you've got a smart home with a ton of different moving parts, the savings could be pretty huge.
Another feature added through the new Nest Aware involves advanced audio sensing. This allows your Nest devices to listen for certain audio triggers in your home, such as alarms or breaking glass, which they can then notify you about via an alert. And speaking of alerts, that's another thing the new subscription adds — a 30 or 60 day video log for specific events (a person moving, or a doorbell ringing, for example).
Otherwise, Nest Aware still offers pretty much the same features, such as facial recognition, clips and time lapses, and the ability to configure motion zones (Google calls them "Activity zones").
When is the new Nest Aware subscription rolling out?
Right now, we don't know exactly when the new pricing model for Nest Aware is rolling out, though Google did say during its October 15 event that the change will happen in "early 2020." That could mean January or March, but it's likely going to be in the first quarter.
Get yourself started
Nest Wifi Router
A great reason to subscribe to Nest Aware
Google's Nest Wifi router improves greatly on the original, with better speed, reliability, and power. Whether you're buying for the first time or upgrading an existing device, this is one piece of hardware you don't w ant to miss.
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