Google plans to lower the quality of its Nest cameras to preserve internet bandwidth as large numbers of adults and children work and play online amid the continuing stay-at-home measures.
“In response to community issues caused by COVID-19, we’re temporarily adjusting your camera quality and bandwidth in an effort to conserve internet resources,” Google wrote in an email to Nest customers. “With so many people working and attending school from home, we’re stretching our resources in ways we haven’t before including the internet.”
Nest users in the US who’ve adjusted their Nest cameras’ quality and bandwidth settings higher than default will have them rolled back to default by Google in the next few days. If they are set lower than the default, nothing will change, and no other settings are being altered.
Google will also be reducing the resolution for photo slideshows on Nest smart displays and Chromecasts.
Users will be notified by the Nest app when the change comes into effect. It isn’t mandatory, though customers can manually revert the settings back above default if they wish.
Google said that once the pressure on networks is eased, it will roll the settings back to what they were before assuming users don’t do it themselves first.
Most of these changes began in Europe after the European Union asked companies to temporarily reduce streaming quality to ease the strain on broadband networks. Similar policies have since spread to the United States and other countries.
