Set up and use Activity Zones

You can create custom Activity Zones for your camera or doorbell for different types of activities that you want to be notified about. Just use the app to draw a zone around a specific area in your camera’s view. For instance, create a zone around a door if you want a notification when a person walks through it. The person who walks through the door activity zone also creates an event in your video history timeline.

Activity Zones is a free feature that comes with cameras and doorbells set up in the Home app. For all other cameras, Activity Zones is available if you have a trial or paid Nest Aware subscription.

With Activity Zones, you can:

• Monitor up to 4 zones per camera.
• Give each zone a custom shape, size, color and name.
• Get people alerts and other motion alerts when activity happens in a zone. If you have a Nest doorbell, you can also get package alerts.
• Get notifications which include the name of the zone, so you know exactly where something happened.
• Set up a zone where there’s activity that you don’t want to be bothered about, such as a window that overlooks a busy view, but get alerts for activity throughout the rest of the room.
• Find markers on your video history timeline for activity that happened in each zone, so it’s easy to review everything.

Activity Zones don't change what your camera detects

Even after you create Activity Zones, your camera still streams its entire view and stores the footage in your video history. The video feed stays the same with or without Activity Zones.

But when you have Activity Zones, you can get alerts about motion in certain parts of your camera’s view and also check when motion happened there in the past.

How to set up Activity Zones for Nest Aware cameras

Create and use Activity Zones on a phone

Create a new Activity Zone

Home app

Note: If the option to create Activity Zones doesn’t appear in the Home app, follow the Nest app instructions in the section below.

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Favorites or Devices .
3. Select the camera that you want to make an Activity Zone for.
4. Tap More  Settings  Events  Seen Events.
5. Choose + Add a zone. The new zone appears in the middle of the camera’s view.
6. Change the shape of the zone to capture what you want.
   • Turn your phone to go into landscape mode for a full screen of your camera’s view. Make sure the screen rotation setting on your phone is on. 
   • Tap and drag inside the zone to move it.
   • Tap and drag any of the 8 dots on the sides of the zone to change its shape.
7. To change the color of the Activity Zone, tap Zone color. You can pick from 4 different colors.
8. Under the camera view, tap on the Zone name to give your zone a descriptive name.
9. Under Event History, you can choose which types of events you want to record in that zone and which notifications you want to receive.

Nest app

1. Select the camera that you want to make an Activity Zone for.
2. Tap Settings .

3. Select Activity Zones. Note: You need to have an active Nest Aware subscription. Otherwise, the Activity Zone option won't appear.

4. Tap Create Zone . The new zone appears in the middle of the screen.
   
5. Turn your phone to go into landscape mode for a full screen of your camera’s view. Make sure the screen rotation setting on your phone is on.
6. Tap and drag inside the zone to move it.
7. Tap and drag any of the 8 points on the sides of the zones to change its shape.
8. On the bottom of the screen, tap one of the colored circles to change the color of Activity Zone. You can pick from 4 different colors.
9. At the top of the screen, tap the pencil  to give your zone a descriptive name. Then, tap the check mark  to save the zone name.
10. Tap the check mark  to save the zone.

After you create a zone

Any events that happen within an Activity Zone are color coded to match the zone, even if they happened before you created the zone.

Edit an Activity Zone

Home app

Note: If the option to create Activity Zones doesn’t appear in the Home app, follow the Nest app instructions in the section below.

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Favorites or Devices .
3. Select the camera with the Activity Zone that you want to edit.
4.  Tap Settings   Events  Seen Events.
5. Update the zone with the changes you want to make. The app saves your changes automatically.

Nest app

1. Select the camera with the Activity Zone you want to edit.
2. Tap Settings .
3. Select Activity Zones.
4. Select the zone you want to edit.
5. Change the zone as you like. You can change its size, shape, color and name, just like you would if you create a new Activity Zone.
6. Tap the check mark  to save. If you change your mind, at the top left corner, tap Cancel .

Remove an Activity Zone

When you delete an Activity Zone, it doesn’t erase footage from your video history, but it removes markers on your timeline that show when your camera noticed activity there.

Home app

Note: If the option to create Activity Zones doesn’t appear in the Home app, follow the Nest app instructions in the section below.

1. Select the camera with the Activity Zone that you want to edit.
2.  Tap Settings   Events  Seen Events.
3. Select the zone you want to delete.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap Delete zone.

Nest app

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Favorites or Devices .
3. Select the camera that you want to delete an Activity Zone for.
4. Tap Settings .
5. Select Activity Zones.
6. Select the zone you want to delete.
7. At the bottom right corner of the screen, tap Delete . Confirm that you want to delete the zone.

Create and use Activity Zones on a computer

Note: You can only create and edit Activity Zones on a computer if you set up your camera or doorbell with the Nest app.

With just a few clicks of your mouse, you can make an Activity Zone for any spot you want to keep an eye on. You can also edit or delete existing Activity Zones.

Create a new activity zone

1. Sign in to the Nest app on a web browser.
2. Select the camera that you want to make an Activity Zone for.

3. At the bottom right corner, select Activity Zones . If the Activity Zones icon isn't there, try to make your browser window bigger to reveal it. Note: You need to have an active Nest Aware subscription. Otherwise, the Activity Zone option doesn't appear.

4. Select Create. The new zone appears in the middle of the screen.

Move and shape an Activity Zone

You can move an Activity Zone and change its shape to fit around any area or object you want to keep an eye on. 

Click and drag inside the zone to move it. Click and drag any of the 8 points on the sides of the zone to change its shape. At the bottom left corner of the screen, click the colored circle to change the color of the Activity Zone. You can pick from 4 different colors. Once you've given the Activity Zone the shape and color you want, give it a descriptive name. At the bottom left corner of your browser, type the name into the box. To save the new Activity Zone, select Done.

Get alerts for your Activity Zones

Although Activity Zones doesn’t change the footage your camera streams and records, when you add a zone, you can get more useful alerts as it tells you where the motion happened.

If you already have a zone set up, you can use the Nest app to manage whether or not you get notifications to alert you when there’s motion in that zone.

1. Go to your camera’s video stream in the Nest app.
2. Select Settings .
3. Select Notifications.
4. To get alerts within the zone, tap a zone’s name, then select People or All other motion, or both. If you have a doorbell, you can also select Packages, which can let you know that a package has been dropped off or picked up within its view.

Note: If People is selected, you get an alert even if there’s a partial view of a person within the zone, such as an arm.

You can also personalize your alerts in the Home app.

Customize your Feed to show only the events you want.

1. Open the Home app at the bottom, tap the Feed .
2. Next to an event in your Feed, tap More Filter activity .
   • If the Feed has no events, tap See customization settings.
3. Tap a device or an event type adjust the settings.

 

If you have email alerts or push notifications enabled for your camera, you also get a snapshot of what your camera detected when it sent you the alert.

Edit an Activity Zone

Use a web browser to sign into your account at home.nest.com.  At the bottom right corner of the screen, click Activity Zones . Select the zone you want to edit. Change the zone as you like. You can change its size, shape, color and name, just like you would if you create a new Activity Zone. When you're finished, click Done.

Remove an Activity Zone

When you delete an Activity Zone, it doesn't erase footage from your video history, but it removes markers on your timeline that show when your camera noticed activity there.

1. Use a web browser to sign into your account at home.nest.com.
2. Select the camera that has the Activity Zone you want to delete.
3. At the bottom right corner, click Activity Zones .
4. Select the zone that you want to remove.
5. Click on the red Delete button.

Review Activity Zones

Whenever your camera spots activity in a zone you’ve created, your timeline is marked to let you know. Just scroll through the timeline and look for the dots and bars that mark events. They are colored to match the color of your Activity Zones. Tap on one to review the recorded video.

Learn about your Sightline and video history

Tips to set up Activity Zones

Create small zones

A big Activity Zone captures more activity. In general, the smaller and more precise the Activity Zone, the more accurate your camera’s alerts should be.

If your zone is too large, objects that don’t appear to be in the zone can trigger an in-zone recording or notification.

Experiment with the size and placement of your Activity Zones to get the effect that you want.

Don't overlap zones

If you overlap 2 or more Activity Zones, you only receive a notification for the Activity Zone where the activity first occurred. If the activity actually happened in 2 or more Activity Zones at the same time, you only get a notification for one of the Activity Zones.