This story was originally published and last updated .
The tale of the Google Nest Hub that apparently fired up a random stranger’s doorbell alert is creeping its way to a close. Following the disturbing not-so-smart-home event last week, Google has informed the affected customer that it pushed out an update to prevent this issue from reoccurring, and the Home Hub that picked up the random stranger’s doorbell feed has been shipped to Google engineers for inspection.
If you’re unfamiliar, last week on May 14th, a Redditor claimed that a Nest Hello camera’s doorbell alert went off on their Home Hub, even though they didn’t have one. The feed simply popped up on the screen while they happened to be nearby, and showed a stranger walking up to an unfamiliar patio and leaving as the doorbell ring event timer counted down. The last few seconds were caught on video:
Image via Reddit.
Not much else about what happened is known, though the user claims that the neighborhood depicted in the video is definitely not his, which may rule out a local issue like an open Wi-Fi access point. A Google representative reached out to the affected Nest Hub owner, and details regarding the device’s provenance, time zone, and firmware/build info were provided to the company. We spoke to the Nest Hub owner, and they confirmed being told that engineers were on the case.
Yesterday, May 21st, the affected Redditor published a short update claiming that Google pushed out a fix for his issue last weekend — at least, to his specific device — and that his Home Hub had been shipped off for engineers to take a look at it. For their trouble, Google shipped the affected owner a new Hub and a handful of other Google goodies, including a pair of Pink Pixel 3 XLs, a Home Hub and Home Hub Max, Nest Doorbell, Nest Wifi, and a handful of other trinkets.
Though we reached out to Google for confirmation and more information regarding the claimed update, representatives at the company have not responded to our query over the last day. I wish we had more specifics for you regarding what happened and if the update that resolved the issue is widely available, but the company hasn’t supplied us with any of those details.
If this episode brings on some déjà vu, it’s not just you. Almost precisely the same thing happened earlier this year to some Xiaomi Mijia cameras linked to the Google Assistant. Let’s hope this doesn’t become a common refrain for Google’s smart home hardware.
The affected Redditor has published a follow-up account that claims Google informed him a fix was rolling out — though it wasn’t immediately clear if that was only for his (since returned) device or for all Home Hubs. Our coverage has been updated with these updated details.
