Google Nest Hub’s new ‘Security’ page makes it much harder to access live camera feeds

Ben Schoon | Jan 24 2023 - 10:13 am PT

Google has quietly updated the interface on the Nest Hub with a new “Security” page, but with the unfortunate side effect of making it much harder to access cameras without using voice.

The “Home Control” page on Google’s Nest Hub devices has been updated recently to do away with the separate “Locks” and “Cameras” pages. Rather, a new “Security” page appears on Nest Hub, which combines the functionality of these two pages into one.

This new page will show the status of a Nest Guard security system at first if you have the discontinued system still active in your home. Next to that is a preview of one live camera feed with arrows to move through any other Nest cameras in your home. Past that, you’ll see the status of any door sensors or door locks connected to your account.

Unfortunately, this new page has the rather annoying side effect of making it considerably more difficult to access live camera feeds without using voice commands. Instead of the dedicated list available at one tap in the previous UI, this new interface buries the option below a submenu. Given the slow speed of the Nest Hub software, that adds several seconds to pulling up a camera live feed. An added frustration is that the preview doesn’t actually work with legacy Nest Cam models and is slow to load for even the newer models.

This unified hub for security devices is certainly a neat idea, but it definitely needs a bit of work. We’re seeing the updated UI across Nest Hub, Nest Hub (2nd Gen), and Nest Hub Max.