Google's $20 Pet Memory Mislabels 3 Cats on Nest Cameras, Undercutting Home Automations
Updated
Updated · The Verge · Aug 18
Google's $20 Pet Memory Mislabels 3 Cats on Nest Cameras, Undercutting Home Automations
1 articles · Updated · The Verge · Aug 18
Summary
Two weeks of testing found Google’s Pet Memory could not distinguish three cats on indoor Nest cameras, repeatedly labeling Boone and a kitten as Smokey.
The feature is meant to identify pets by name for alerts and routines, but it offers no photo uploads, correction tools or real training flow, leaving users to enter only a name and breed.
That misidentification broke practical uses: feeder automations triggered for the wrong cat, and Google Home could not cap how often the routine ran, leaving a food bowl overflowing by day’s end.
Pet Memory also requires Google’s $20-a-month Home Advanced plan and currently works only on indoor Nest Cams, limiting broader pet-monitoring uses such as door or yard checks.
The test suggests AI camera summaries still lag behind continuous video review for pet care, even as Google pushes more descriptive smart-home alerts.