Yes, you can use the Google Nest Cam without a subscription, However, at the time of purchase, you need to buy the camera along with a monthly subscription. Later, if you choose to discontinue the service, you will still be able to see the live feed and avail 3 hours of Event Video History, Person Seen, Animal Detection, and vehicle Detection Alerts, as well as Activity Zones. On discontinuing the subscription, intelligent alerts like Familiar Face alerts, extended Event Video History and Customer Care service support from Tata Play will be discontinued.

Google Nest Cam will go into idle mode when it’s running on battery and when there is no activity to be recorded or it hasn’t been activated for an alert due to no detected motion. To stream live video in this case, you will need to tap ‘Live Video’ for your Camera in the Google Home App.

You can access your Google Nest Cam and control the zoom feature from the Google Home App. Open the app and select the camera you want to look at. Once you are looking through your Camera’s live feed, pinch or spread your fingers out to zoom in or out.

You can easily save events as video clips on your phone with the Google Home App. You can only download video clips from detected events in the video history. You cannot download video clips from footage with no activity. The maximum clip length setting for your Camera will affect how long video clips can be. Follow the steps below to create and download a video clip:

  • Open the Google Home App.
  • Select your Camera.
  • Tap ‘History’ near the bottom of the screen.
  • Scroll to an event in your Camera’s video history timeline. You can also tap ‘Full History’ for a list of events.
  • Choose the event you want, then tap ‘Event Details’.
  • Near the top of the screen, tap ‘Download’ to save the video clip to your phone. From there, you can share the video clip via email or social media app

Here’s more information on saving clips.

You can permanently delete your Google Nest Cam’s entire video history at any time. This will also delete any photo snapshots in video history. To delete the video history:

  • Open the Google Home App.
  • Touch and hold your device's tile.
  • Tap ‘Settings’ > ‘Delete Video History’.
  • Tap ‘Delete’ to confirm. All of your camera’s video history and snapshots will be permanently deleted.

Here’s more information on deleting camera footage.