Each of your Google Nest products can send you alerts to let you know when something in your home needs your attention. Whether it's push notifications to your phone, emails or both, they'll try to alert you about important events, emergencies and technical issues.
After you add a compatible product to your account in the Google Home or Nest app, you can change notification settings. If you ever want to change those settings, select Notifications in the app's Settings menu.
Change notification settings with the app
Note: The app that you use to change notification settings is the same one that you used to first set up your product. For instance, you'll use the Nest app to change Nest Protect notifications, and the Home app for Google speakers and displays.
Home app
- Open the Google Home app .
- Tap Settings Notifications.
- If push notifications are not enabled in your device's settings, a banner will appear on the screen. To turn on push notifications in your device's settings, tap the link in the banner and follow the steps.
- Select General notifications.
- Turn any notifications on or off.
- If you turn on critical alerts, but they're not enabled in your device’s settings, a banner will appear on the screen. To turn on critical alerts in your device's settings, tap the link in the banner and follow the steps.
For other notifications in the Home app, go to Manage your Google Home app notifications.
Nest app
- Open the Nest app.
- Tap Settings on the home screen.
- Select Notifications.
- Choose the Nest product for which you want to change notifications, or select options for Nest Home Report or Rush Hour Rewards. Each item in the list will have different notification options, which are summarised below.
Critical alerts
Critical alerts let you know about important events, like a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm, even if your phone's volume is set to low and you've turned on Do Not Disturb. To receive critical alerts from Google Nest, you'll need to turn them on both in 'General notifications' in the Home app and in your phone's settings.
To set up critical alerts:
- Open the Home app tap Settings Notifications General notifications.
- Turn on critical alerts.
- Check for a banner at the top of the screen.
- If there's a banner that says 'Critical alerts are turned off in this device's settings', tap Turn on critical alerts, then follow the steps to complete setup in your phone's settings.
- If there's no banner, you're all set.
Notification options for each Nest product
For more information about the notification options available for each Nest product, select one of the sections below.
Nest cameras and video doorbells
Nest thermostats
Air filter reminder
If you have a forced air heating or cooling system, you can choose to turn the Air filter reminders on or off. These help you know when it's time to change the air filter to keep your system running efficiently.
If you don't have a forced air heating or cooling system connected to your Nest thermostat, you won't see the option to set air filter reminders in the app or on the thermostat.
Safety temperatures
Safety temperatures can help ensure that your pipes don't freeze or that your home doesn't become extremely hot even when your thermostat is set to Off or Eco Temperature. You'll get a message when your home has reached the safety temperature that you've set and a second message when things have returned to normal. As long as safety temperatures are set, their notifications are always set to on.
You can turn off safety temperature if you don't want to receive these notifications. But if you do, your thermostat won't help protect your home from extreme temperatures when you're out.
Nest Protect smoke and CO alarm
Google Nest Protect uses its voice and lights to let you know about potential danger and where in your home it's happening. It can also send notifications to your phone if your home's Wi-Fi and Internet connection are working.
Because they're a matter of safety, Nest Protect notifications about smoke, carbon monoxide, low batteries, offline status, expiry and sensor failure can't be turned off with the Nest app. So you won't see options for these notifications in the Protect settings menu.
Note: Due to safety regulations, all smoke and CO alarms expire. 1st gen Nest Protect expires after 7 years from the date of manufacture and 2nd gen Nest Protect expires after 10 years from the date of manufacture. To learn more, please visit the When to replace your Nest Protect article.
Sound Check for 2nd gen Protects
The Sound Check self-test that Nest Protect can automatically run each month can send a notification five minutes before the test runs. The notification will give you a warning and let you skip the test if you want.
If you disable the Sound Check test in app settings, you'll no longer get the pre-test notification, but it's recommended that you keep Sound Check enabled.
Video clip alerts
If you have a Nest camera in addition to a Nest Protect and there's a smoke or carbon monoxide emergency, you will get an email that lets you know that your camera has saved a video clip recorded during the event. This function is on by default and can't be turned off with the Nest app. It is also dependent on your home's working Wi-Fi and Internet connection. Emergency clip recording is OFF by default. To turn it on:
- Open the Nest app and select your Protect.
- Tap Settings Works with Protect, then select the cameras on which you want to record.
Note: This feature is dependent on your home's Wi-Fi and Internet connection.
Nest x Yale lock
The Google Nest × Yale lock has a built-in speaker. You'll hear chimes and get some audio alerts on your lock, as well as receive notifications on your phone.
In the app, you can change settings to enable or disable notifications when your door is locked or unlocked.
Tip: If someone uses a passcode or the Nest app to unlock the door, or if they use the Nest app to lock the door, the alert will display the name that you gave that person in the Nest app.
You'll also be able to review a 10-day history for your lock in the Nest app.
There are some additional notifications that you'll receive from your lock, but you won't be able to turn these off. Some of these notifications include the following:
- When the lock has a low battery
- If someone with Home Entry Only uses a passcode outside of their scheduled time
- When someone enters an incorrect passcode 5 times
- If your lock goes offline for more than 10 minutes
- When your deadbolt is unable to extend or retract
- Tamper detection
Nest Home Report
The Nest Home Report is a monthly email that summarises activity for all the Nest products in your account in the Nest app, like your thermostat's reported energy use, Protect smoke and CO events and more. If you don't want to get a report emailed to you, you can turn it off. You can also choose the language for your Home Report.
Rush Hour Rewards
Eligible customers can sign up for Rush Hour Rewards with their energy provider. Once you're in the programme, you can get notifications on your Nest thermostat and in the Nest or Home app that a rush hour will be happening soon, when it will start and when it will end.
If you turn off notifications about rush hours, you won't get rush hour notifications on your thermostat or phone.
Set up notifications in a shared Nest home
With Family Accounts, you can share access to your Nest home with other people. However, whenever someone makes a change to their notification settings, it may affect everyone else.
Select your product for more information.
Nest cameras and video doorbells
Each person can set their own preferences, and it won't affect anyone else.
For example, you might want to get a notification every time that your camera spots motion, but your spouse might not want to get any notifications. The Nest app lets each of you choose the notifications that you want.
Nest x Yale lock
Each person can set their own preferences, and it won't affect anyone else.
For example, you might want to get a notification whenever someone locks or unlocks the door, but your spouse might not want to get any notifications. The Nest app lets each of you choose the notifications that you want.
Nest Home Report
Each person can set their own preferences, and it won't affect anyone else.
For example, you might want to have us send the monthly Nest Home Report to your own email address, but your spouse doesn't want to get it at their email address. The Nest app lets each of you choose separately.
All other Nest products
If you change a notification setting in the Nest app, it will also change that setting for everyone who shares control of devices in your home.
However, each person can change their own notification settings outside the Nest app.
Create an email filter: If you don't want to get emails, you can create a filter in your email app, like Gmail or iCloud Mail to automatically archive or delete emails from Nest.
Change your phone's notification settings: If you don't want to get notifications, you can change your OS notification settings on your Android device or iOS device to block push notifications from the Nest app. Bear in mind that if you do this, you won't be alerted to what's happening in your Nest home.Override Do Not Disturb mode
Note: This option is only available for Android phones.
When Do Not Disturb mode is on for your phone, you won't receive any app notifications by default. However, you can set the Nest app or Home app to override Do Not Disturb mode so that you can still receive important notifications.
For example, you can allow the Nest app to send alarm notifications from your Nest Protect.
Find out how to let apps override Do Not Disturb mode in the Android Help Centre.