85% of 26 verified Google Nest Doorbell (Wired, 2nd Gen)owners don't recommend it, and 2 describe specific problems — based on real owner comments from Reddit, enthusiast forums, and YouTube.
For balance: 15% recommend it. This page collects the complaints so you know what you're signing up for — read the full owner report for both sides. How we score
“It's almost to the point that I'm going to get a different doorbell”— @ceciliawilson6531 on YouTube
“i'm disappointed that this really isn't much (if any) of an upgrade from the Hello doorbell”— @bigshel99 on YouTube
“Id like to have wider angle on the new doorbell.”— @Volodya_USA on YouTube
“Wow Gen 1 is better for me I like the wider view”— @GodKing804 on YouTube
“gen2 doesn't seem like much of an upgrade”— @07eperez21 on YouTube
“the chime was grinding so disconnected it”— @inthedarkknight on YouTube
“Camera is much lower resolution and doesn't handle shade/ silhouettes very well. We stream our doorbell to a Nest Home Max most all day and the gen 2 is very narrow on the display (both in FOV and actual screen size).”— blablablausernam on Reddit
“With this new doorbell, the video is taller and more narrow. I get notifications immediately, but when I look at the "photo", it's a short video clip and doesn't even show me the person or thing that it saw.”— HereForTheComments57 on Reddit
“we prefer to buy the older wider view one to the new model with a lesser camera in it”— @CXJ1898 on YouTube
“Save your money. Customer support for the Google doorbell is a nightmare.”— @evaguerra2494 on YouTube
“I "upgraded" from the original Nest Hello wired doorbell to the wired, 2nd gen, and have had NOTHING but issues. Live video is choppy / constantly drops and even after a few factory resets (as suggested by the Google support team) it doesn't fix it.”— juan_tons on Reddit
“The doorbell is pretty much useless without the subscription which is the biggest drawback given the cost of it. Without a subscription it only stores video for 3 hours, so if anything happens overnight your video is gone by the morning.”— OrganicRaspberry530 on Reddit
Not complaints — practical notes from owners that didn't affect the score.
“reach out to Google first and ask them to send me a replacement puck as I suspected mine was defective. The replacement puck came the next day, I installed it, and it worked!”— rockey5 on Reddit
“I wired the chime connector in series - between the output of the doorbell and the chime, and everything seems to work perfectly. I never got any hum in any configuration.”— Gabriel-h99 on Reddit
“Google screwed up the firmware a while ago and still hasn't fixed it. Toggling the "indoor chime" off and on and sometimes "electronic chime" fixes it for almost everyone.”— AStuf on Reddit
“I connected the puck instead to “front” and “back” (back was unoccupied since we have no back doorbell). This resulted in no plunger vibration or buzz, and the chime work”— SandwichSouthern5642 on Reddit
“I ended up replacing the transformer to a 30v and doorbell itself. The puck is required otherwise the mechanical bell plunger bounces around. It works correctly now.”— Johnback42 on Reddit
“Ever since upgrading to the 2nd gen nest doorbell, the chime stopped working. Thanks to your suggestion, I removed the chime connector and now the chime works.”— jebb846 on Reddit
“I found a setting asking whether we had an electronic chime or not. It was set to “yes” - I changed it to “no” and immediately the chime was working properly.”— Konstantine_Broadway on Reddit
“eventually we started getting fake/ghost chiming inside the house (caused by fluctuating voltage). Finally upgraded the transformer to 24V/40VA (~$20 from HD) and everything works now.”— amillionpercent on Reddit