What do the lights and sounds on my Nest Cam mean?

If you have a Nest Cam, of whichever flavour, LED lights and chimes will inform you of its current status. But what do they all mean and can you switch them off?

What do the lights mean: Nest Cam Outdoor & Indoor

Both the outdoor and indoor Nest Cams have a single LED light just above the camera lens.

Solid green

Everything is working normally – your Nest Cam is turned on, connected to a Wi-Fi network and is happily streaming video.

Solid blue

The Nest Cam is booting up or rebooting. This happens when you first plug your camera into a power socket, when your camera is restarting after a power cut or firmware update, or is waiting to be added to an account.

Solid red

If you don’t see anything but a solid red status light then, bizarrely, this means that the LED light itself if faulty.

Pulsing green

Someone is watching the live video stream remotely with the Nest app or via the Nest website.

What do the lights mean: Nest Cam IQ

The Nest Cam IQ has two different LEDs – a small status light near the bottom of the lens and a larger light ring surrounding the lens.

Status light – solid green

Everything is working normally – your Nest Cam is turned on, connected to a Wi-Fi network and is happily streaming video.

Status light – slowly pulsing green

Someone is watching the live video stream remotely with the Nest app or via the Nest website.

Light ring – pulsing blue

Your camera is ready and waiting for your input in the Nest app.

Light ring – blinks yellow 5 times

When you’re setting up your camera for the first time, the light ring might pulse yellow once if your camera had trouble connecting to the Nest service or completing setup.

Light ring – blinks red

Your camera is plugged in but there’s not enough power for it to work correctly.

How to turn the status lights off

If you want your camera to be less noticeable, or if the status light is too bright at night, you can turn them off from within the Nest app:

1. Select your camera from the Nest app home screen
2. Click the settings icon (the cog in the corner)
3. Scroll down and select the “Status light” option

You can now choose under which circumstances the light will come on. Even if switched off, the light may come back on to inform you of important status information, however.

What do the sounds mean?

All of the cameras in the Nest range have a single sound – a soft chime. This indicates that someone is about to use the “Talk & Listen” feature – essentially using the Nest app or website to speak to somebody via the camera.

How to turn the sound off

If you don’t want anybody to know when you’re speaking to them via the camera, you can switch off the “chime”:

1. Select your camera from the Nest app home screen
2. Click the settings icon (the cog in the corner)
3. Scroll down and select the “Talk and listen tone” option

From here you can toggle it on and off.