Announcing the new Nest Cam for your home

I have a lot going on at home so leaving the house, even for just a few hours, can be stressful. If my kids are in school I worry about what my pets are up to, and if my kids are at home, I worry about whether or not a fight is breaking out or if someone is destroying the kitchen.

That’s why I was so excited to hear about the newest Nest product, the Nest Cam. Not only is it a crystal clear 1080p webcam you can hook up in your home to check in on everything, it belongs to the Nest family of products so you know it will work alongside your Nest devices.

I had my first taste of what Nest smart home devices can do when I installed the Nest Protect in my home. It looks just like a normal, run of the mill smoke detector, but it definitely doesn’t act just like one. Once you install it and connect it to your Wi-Fi network, your Nest Protect will monitor your home for smoke and carbon monoxide. Plus, it actually talks to you—with a real voice speaking to you to get up in case of fire or carbon monoxide, you’re much more likely to get up in the middle of the night. You can even open the Nest app on smartphone and check in to see how you’re Nest Protect is running during the day, and you’ll get monthly reports on any incidents in your home.

I love my Nest Protect so much that when I was moving out of my home recently, I popped it down off the ceiling and took it with me.  

The only thing cooler than having the Nest Protect at my house was the fact that you could add other Nest devices and they would all work together. The Nest Thermostat keeps your home’s temperature even and you can control it from your smartphone, but it also connects to your Nest Protect. If there’s a fire or carbon monoxide leak, your Nest Thermostat will be alerted by your Nest Protect and it will automatically shut your furnace down for you.

Now that Nest has added the Nest Cam to their family of products, you’re going to have access to an HD webcam with some amazing functionality you can only find in a Nest product.

Here’s a quick look at the Nest Cam and what it can do in your home:

How the Nest Cam works

The Nest Cam is a network camera that lets you check in on your home right from your smartphone. It gives you a really clear stream in 1080p HD, and you’ll get a 130° wide-angle view of any room you put it in. If you see something that looks off or you just want to zoom in on your pets and kids, you can do that too.

Simple set up gets you viewing fast

Some network cams take a long time to set up, and you’ll have to to do some serious maneuvering to get them to connect and stream. The Nest Cam has a simple, 60-second setup. All you have to do is plug in the power cord, download the app, and set up the Nest Cam from your iOS or Android device.

Talk back, from wherever you are

One of the coolest features on the Nest Cam is that it has a microphone and speaker. Nest Cam doesn’t just give you a grainy image like you’d see on some webcams—it’s a full 1080p HD stream complete with sound, and if you want to talk to someone you’re watching, you can. I can’t emphasize enough what a great feature that is, especially when you’re looking in on your kids or your pets and there’s something going on that you want to talk to them about. Your voice will come through loud and clear, and if you’re at home and someone is about to speak through the cam, the Nest Cam will chime so it gets your attention.

Secure stream to keep prying eyes from looking in

It’s exciting that the Nest Cam will give you a view into your home, but you’re also going to be happy that your stream is as private as it possibly can be. Your can relax knowing your Nest Cam is protected with bank-level security with 128-bit SSL encryption, Perfect Forward Secrecy, and a 2048-bit RSA key.

If something is going on, you’ll receive an alert

You’re busy, and you can’t be glued to your Nest Cam stream every time you leave the house. That’s why it’s nice to know that the Nest Cam will send you an alert if it detects motion or hears a sound. A message will be sent straight to your phone so you can check in and see what’s going on.

When the lights go out, the Nest Cam stays on

Some network cameras will only give you a small look into your room when it’s dark outside, but the Nest Cam goes one better. It has Night Vision LED sensors so you can see the entire room, and that means you can keep an eye on something as simple as your pet sleeping on your couch or get a good look at someone who isn’t supposed to be in your home at all.

Watch your video feed whenever you want to

With a Nest Cam you don’t have to be glued to your video stream to see everything that’s going on. With a Nest Aware subscription you can record a video history for up to 30 days and store it in the cloud, so you can always go back and watch what you’ve missed or save your own clips.

Nest Aware actually goes a bit further than just the usual cloud storage—because it has advanced algorithms, depth sensing, and face detection, it gives your Nest Cam the power to actually tell the difference between light, shadows, and branches. That way if you see something that makes you suspicious when you’re looking in on your Nest Cam, you’ll know if it’s an intruder or just a shadow on the wall.

Just like Nest Protect took the concept of a smoke detector and turned it into a smart home device and Nest Thermostat gave us the power to control our heating and cooling via our smartphone, the Nest Cam will give us the ability to really interact with our homes when we’re not there.

The Nest Cam is one of the coolest network cameras to hit the market, and you can get one soon because they’re coming to Bestbuy.ca.