Google Nest cameras are finally getting a fix for their blurry night vision

Google is rolling out a fix to a few Nest Cam models as the company finally addresses the blurry night vision problem.

Back in late October, several reports emerged about a significant drop in performance of Nest Cam’s night vision function. It was discovered the video feed became really grainy after the sunset nearly losing all detail. You can find images of the drop on the Nest subreddit. 

In one notable post on reddit, the problem got so bad you can barely make out what’s in the picture. The trees are almost completely obscured by what looks like TV static. This whole situation was ultimately pinned on a botched firmware update – version 1.69, to be exact – which came out in mid-September. Daytime performance, on the other hand, was totally fine during this time. There weren’t any reports of blurry videos during the afternoon.

The tech giant has told 9to5Google the fix is currently making its way to the battery-powered Nest Cam model, the battery-powered Nest Doorbell, and the second-generation wired Nest Doorbell. It’ll be released to “all users over the coming weeks” so keep an eye out for the patch when it arrives. 

Possibly continuing

What’s interesting about the blurry night vision is it has been a recurring problem for some time now. If you look through old posts on the Google Nest Community forums, you’ll find people a few months ago complaining about the June 2023 update causing a “horrible whitewash effect”. This also caused a blurred video feed. A poster in the thread akin it to someone smearing Vaseline over the lens.

We’re bringing up past frustrations because they may continue for a little bit longer. Another 9To5Google report mentions having the same issue occur on the Nest Cam with Floodlight; a model that isn’t on the company’s initial patch list. So we reached out to Google asking if there any other cameras suffering from the same bug and if there are plans to address those as well. This story will be updated if and when we hear back from the company.

Until then, check out TechRadar’s list of the best home security cameras for 2023.

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