ISSUE 68 • ANDROID ADVISOR 75127-degree field of view, the Nest camera can transmit
both audio and video to the Google Home app, and
if you sign up for a Nest Aware subscription plan
(starting at £4 per month for each camera, or £8 every
month and up for all your Nest devices starting in
early 2020), it can keep a five- to 30-day video history
as well as send you mobile alerts if it spots someone
it doesn’t recognize. That’s a nifty bonus for anyone
who’s already monitoring their home with smart
security devices, and for flat dwellers like me who
have yet to invest in home security, it’s like getting
an instant, zero-effort home monitoring kit.
All well and good, but it’s worth noting that
Amazon’s 10in Echo Show boasts its free Alexa
Guard feature, which keeps an ear out for breaking
glass, alarms, and other suspicious sounds. (Nest
Aware will offer a similar feature starting next year,
but you’ll need to pay for it.) The biggest Echo Show
also throws in an enticing smart home feature that
the Nest Hub Max lacks: the ability to double as a
Zigbee hub, perfect for connecting Zigbee-compatible
smart lights and other devices to your network without
the need for a separate bridge.
Finally, while the Nest Hub Max packs in tight Nest
integration, the Echo Show ties in with Amazon’s
line of inexpensive Ring home security products,
including the excellent Ring Alarm.
UI and gestures
You can swipe down from the top of the screen to
see a room-by-room overview of all your various
connected smart gadgets, and you can tap (for