The Nest Cam revolution has been spectacular thus far to be sure, boasting a wide variety of home security options for customers all over the world. It all started in 2015 when Nest bought DropCam, and then Nest was quickly snatched up by Google. Some of Nest’s top features most loved by customers are the attractive design, low price and free intelligent alerts.
Figuring out your options for how and where you can mount your security cameras can leave you with a bunch of questions. In this article we are going to cover the basics or mounting your Nest cam on a window, as well as some other details such as the best place to watch your video recordings and how to prevent glare.
Can You Put A Security Camera In A Window?
Most indoor and outdoor security cameras can be placed in a window by simply placing them on the windowsill and face them out. However this isn’t recommended if you want the camera to be more secretive and out of sight.
It’s typically easier to put a little security camera under an eave or in a corner somewhere than it is to put it on a window. But if window mounting is still something you’re wanting to do with your Nest, then you will need to purchase the kit from a third party.
How Do You Attach A Nest Cam To A Window?
Mounting your Nest cam onto a window honestly depends on which mounting kit you purchase. Some of the kits have a magnet that attaches on your window pane, some have suction cups that you can stick to your window.
For instance, to use a Pop Mounts window mount kit, you need to unscrew the bottom part of your Nest Cam and screw on the adapter provided in the kit. From there you can add on the suction cup or magnet mount and then mount it in your desired location.
And if there is any confusion as to what parts you need to swap out, YouTube has plenty of how to videos showing how each part of the mount kit works
How Do I Get My Security Camera To Work Through A Window?
The biggest problem you’re going to run into when setting up any sort of security camera and have it facing out a window is glare. Any sort of light coming into the window will shine on the camera lens blocking out a good portion of the view that camera has, sometimes the glare will completely block the camera’s view.
If you’d like to prevent the glare on your window from obstructing your camera’s view when recording, it’s always a good idea to make sure there is as little possible light coming directly into the window you choose to have the camera in.
Now if you want to make the most of a camera with night vision capabilities through glass, then you need to make sure there is plenty of exterior lighting. You will also need to turn off the camera’s built-in IR light for this trick to work, otherwise the built-in IR light will reflect off the glass causing glare.
Traditional outdoor flood lights or IR lighting are perfect, and you can always make the lights motion activated so they aren’t on all the time.
Can You View Nest Cam On A PC?
You can watch your Nest camera’s video history on any phone, tablet, or computer with internet access. All you need to do to view the video history is sign into your account at home.nest.com and select the camera that has a Nest Aware subscription.
Nest Cam Features
When you purchase a Nest camera, you get three hours of free history that you can view from the Google Home app, but in order to get unlimited video history you need to upgrade to Nest Aware.
For $6 a month you get a wide range of safety features such as unlimited devices at no extra charge, you can set “intelligent alerts” such as teaching your Nest to identify familiar faces, or sound detection that alerts you to glass breaking or your smoke alarm going off.
You can also share your videos recorded by the Nest cam.
Another fantastic feature of Nest cameras is if there happens to be an emergency while you’re away from your home, you can call 911 from the Google Home app to notify your local emergency center closest to your home.
Conclusion
When you put together all of the great features that Nest has to offer, it begs the question why anyone would want to go with another security camera system.
And sure, setting up a Nest camera to record through a window can be seen as a hassle to some, it’s definitely not impossible. Make sure to do your research when looking into home security systems, and spare no expense when it comes to all the accessories.
