How to show a Home Assistant dashboard on a Google Nest Hub
Short version: you cast the dashboard from your Home Assistant server to the Hub over your home network, because you can't install Home Assistant on the Hub itself. Done right, it turns the Hub into a wall-mounted touch panel for your lights, climate and cameras. The one thing that trips almost everyone up is that the dashboard drops back to the Hub's photo screen after about ten minutes. This guide gets it on the screen, then makes it stay there for good.
Why you can't just install Home Assistant on the Hub
The Google Nest Hub is a closed appliance. Google doesn't let you side-load apps onto it, so there's no Home Assistant app to install and no way around that. What the Hub can do is receive a cast, the same way it accepts a YouTube video or a photo slideshow. Home Assistant uses that casting channel to push a live dashboard to the screen, served from your own server on your local network. Nothing leaves your home for this to work, which is exactly how a smart home panel should be built: local, under your control, no cloud in the loop.
What you need before you start
- A running Home Assistant server. A Home Assistant Green, a Raspberry Pi, or a mini PC all do the job.
- Your Nest Hub and Home Assistant server on the same WiFi network and VLAN. If you've split your smart gear onto a separate IoT network, note that now. It's the number-one reason casting won't start.
- The Google Cast integration enabled in Home Assistant.
Step one: get the dashboard onto the screen
- In Home Assistant, go to Settings → Devices & Services and confirm the Google Cast integration is set up. It should discover your Nest Hub automatically.
- Build or pick the dashboard you want to display. Don't use your busy phone dashboard. See the layout tip below.
- Trigger a cast to the Hub. The dashboard should appear on the screen within a few seconds.
If it appears, the hard part is done. Now fix the timeout.
Step two: stop it dropping after 10 minutes
Google ends idle cast sessions after roughly ten minutes, and the Hub goes back to showing photos. There's no setting to switch that off, so the fix is to re-cast the dashboard automatically before the session ever gets a chance to time out. Two approaches work:
- A small add-on or container that keeps the cast alive and re-casts when it sees the session has ended. This is the set-and-forget option, and it's the one I'd reach for.
- A Home Assistant automation that re-casts on a timer, say every nine minutes, or whenever the Hub reports it's gone idle. No extra software, but a bit more fiddly to tune.
Either way you end up with a Hub that stays on your dashboard all day. Set it once, set it right, and you can walk away. If you'd rather not maintain an automation, take the add-on route.
One thing worth saying plainly: don't chase a "proper" fix that makes the timeout disappear, because there isn't one. Google controls the cast session and Google decided ten minutes is enough. Re-casting is not a hack you're settling for, it's the accepted way to run a permanent Hub dashboard, and it's exactly how the polished wall-mount setups you've seen are doing it under the hood.
Why the same-network rule is not optional
Casting finds devices using mDNS, the same local discovery your printer uses to show up without you typing an IP address. That discovery traffic does not cross between separate networks unless you deliberately let it through. So if the Hub is on one subnet and Home Assistant is on another, they simply never see each other, and the cast has nothing to talk to. This is worth understanding rather than fighting, because the alternative is rebooting things at random and blaming Home Assistant for a router problem.
If you keep your smart gear on its own IoT network for security, which is a sensible thing to do, you have two honest options. Put the Hub and the Home Assistant server on the same segment as each other, or leave them split and allow mDNS plus the casting ports between the two networks. Both are fine. What doesn't work is expecting cross-network discovery to happen by magic. Sort the network first and the casting usually falls into place on its own.
Step three: make the layout actually readable
The Nest Hub has a small screen and you tap it from across the room, so a dashboard built for your phone looks cramped and is a pain to use. Build a separate dashboard just for the Hub: a handful of large tiles for the things you'll actually touch. The lights for that room, the heating or cooling, the front camera, maybe a scene or two. Big buttons, few of them. You'll use it far more once it isn't a wall of tiny icons.
A quick rule of thumb: if you have to lean in and squint to hit a control, the tile is too small. Design it for the person standing at the wall with an armful of shopping, not for you sitting at a desk admiring it. Put the two or three controls you use every day up top, and push the rest onto a second view they can tap through to. The best Hub dashboard is boring and obvious.
If casting won't start at all
Nine times out of ten this is a network problem, not a Home Assistant one:
- Different networks: if your Hub is on a guest or IoT WiFi and the server is on your main network, the two can't discover each other. Allow casting and mDNS traffic between them, or put both on the same network.
- Hub not discovered: reboot the Hub and the Home Assistant server, then re-check the Google Cast integration.
- Mesh WiFi quirks: some mesh systems isolate devices from each other by default. Look for a "device isolation" or "client isolation" setting and turn it off.
Get it set up without the tinkering
Frequently asked questions
Can you install Home Assistant directly on a Google Nest Hub?
No. A Nest Hub is a closed Google device and won't run third-party apps, so you can't install Home Assistant on it. The supported approach is to cast a Home Assistant dashboard to the Hub from your server over your local network.
Why does my dashboard drop off the Nest Hub after about 10 minutes?
Google times out cast sessions after roughly ten minutes and the Hub returns to its photo screen. The fix is a small add-on or automation that re-casts the dashboard automatically, so it stays on permanently.
Do I need a paid Nabu Casa subscription?
No. Casting works entirely on your local network. You only need cloud access if you want to control Home Assistant from outside your home.
Will it work if my Hub and server are on different WiFi networks?
Usually not reliably. Casting needs the Hub and server on the same network and VLAN. A separate IoT or guest network is a common reason casting won't start unless you allow the traffic between them.
The standard dashboard looks cramped on the Hub. What do I do?
Build a separate dashboard sized for the Hub, with a few large tiles instead of your full phone layout. Big buttons for lights, climate and cameras read far better.
Can you set this up for me?
Yes. We set up Home Assistant and wall-mounted Hub dashboards remotely across Australia, and in person where we cover. We'll get it casting, make it stay on, and tidy the layout.
A Hub dashboard that stays on is one of the nicest upgrades you can make to a Home Assistant setup. The casting timeout and the network gotchas are what trip people up, and both are the sort of thing you fix once and never touch again. If you'd rather it just worked, tell us what you've got and we'll set up the dashboard, make it permanent and tidy the layout, remotely across Australia or in person where we cover.