The Nest Hello video doorbell is a popular smart doorbell that allows you to see, hear, and speak to visitors at your door. However, some users have reported issues with slow video rendering, delays in notifications and streaming, intermittent connectivity problems, and excessive bandwidth usage. Here are the top tips to speed up and improve your Nest Hello’s performance.
Table of Contents
Troubleshoot Slow Video Rendering
If your Nest Hello is taking a long time (45 seconds up to 2 minutes) to display the video feed when someone rings the doorbell, try these troubleshooting steps:
- Check your Wi-Fi connection and move devices closer: The Nest Hello relies on your home Wi-Fi connection. Make sure the doorbell is within range of your router or Wi-Fi extender. You may need to move other Wi-Fi devices farther away if there is too much interference.
- Lower the video quality setting: High video quality uses more bandwidth which can slow things down. In the Nest app, go to Settings > Quality and Bandwidth and lower the video quality. The lower quality uses less data.
- Upgrade your Wi-Fi router: If your Wi-Fi router is old, it may not provide enough bandwidth for good video streaming performance. Consider upgrading to a modern dual-band router. Mesh Wi-Fi systems provide whole home coverage.
- Contact your ISP: Check that your internet speeds meet Nest’s recommended minimum upload and download speeds of 2 Mbps. If not, contact your internet service provider about upgrading your internet plan.
Reduce Notification Delays
If notifications from your Nest Hello to your phone are delayed by 10 seconds or more, try these tips:
- Close unused apps on your phone: Too many open apps can slow things down. Force quit any apps you aren’t actively using.
- Check your phone’s Wi-Fi connection: Make sure your phone has a strong Wi-Fi signal or fast cellular data connection for timely notifications.
- Restart your phone and doorbell: Turn them off and back on to refresh the connection.
- Check the app version: Use the latest version of the Nest or Google Home app. Updates improve performance and fix bugs.
Improve Intermittent Connectivity
If your Nest Hello goes offline frequently, it likely doesn’t have a consistent Wi-Fi connection. Try these troubleshooting steps:
- Move your router closer: Place your Wi-Fi router closer to the doorbell to improve signal strength.
- Avoid Wi-Fi interference: Make sure the doorbell isn’t located near other wireless devices like baby monitors that could cause interference.
- Set 5 GHz Wi-Fi band: The 5 GHz Wi-Fi band provides faster speeds and less interference than the more common 2.4 GHz band. Set both your router and Nest Hello to use 5 GHz if possible.
- Disable Home/Away Assist: This feature turns the camera on and off based on your location. Keep it always on to maintain a consistent connection.
- Factory reset: If other steps don’t resolve Wi-Fi drops, reset your Nest Hello to factory default settings.
Reduce Bandwidth Usage
Excessive bandwidth usage leads to buffering and performance issues. To reduce the Nest Hello’s bandwidth demands:
- Lower video quality: As mentioned above, use the lowest practical video setting. This has a big impact on your total monthly data usage.
- Adjust motion detection: Fine-tune motion sensitivity to avoid false alerts that eat up bandwidth from unnecessary video uploads. Set activity zones focused only on key areas.
- Set a recording schedule: Use Home/Away Assist to only record when you’re out. Or set a schedule to turn recording off at night. Less footage means less data.
- Turn off audio recording: Continuous audio recording uses extra bandwidth. Disable it if you don’t need it.
Conclusion
Following this Nest troubleshooting advice should significantly improve your doorbell’s video performance, notification timeliness, connectivity reliability and reduce unnecessary broadband data usage. Be sure to also keep your phone, Wi-Fi network, and Nest apps up to date for the best experience. Let us know if you have any other Nest Hello issues!
