Google Home’s takeover of the Nest app is nearly complete

Ben Schoon | Sep 1 2024 - 9:00 am PT

The Nest app has a long history, but it’s slowly on its way out. As the next major product moves fully to the Google Home app, the Nest app is nearly done for good.

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Since Google’s purchase of Nest in 2014, the company has moved to where “Google Nest” has taken over, with a further emphasis on Google’s vision for the smart home over what Nest had established beforehand. The biggest signal in that was in 2021, when Google launched a completely revamped lineup of cameras and doorbells which, among other changes, ditched the Nest app.

A few years later, the Nest app still functions, but Google has taken several more steps to move away from it.

Beyond just moving the Nest camera and doorbell lineup over to the Home app, Google is also moving older devices over as well. Last year, the company started moving its most popular camera, the older Nest Indoor Camera, to the Home app with a new migration process from the Nest app. It enabled full use of the camera through the Home app, only needing the Nest app for initial setup at this point. More recently, the Nest Outdoor camera and Nest Hello doorbell were also migrated over.

The most recent tipping point has been the new Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen), which replaces the prior generation that was nearing a decade old. Google officially no longer sells a Thermostat that requires the Nest app, and only models that use the Home app. Given the Nest Thermostat is arguably the most iconic device in the Nest lineup, this was perhaps the most important shift for Google in moving away from the legacy app.

So what’s left? Since Nest Secure is dead, there are only a few things.

There are the remaining Nest cameras, such as the IQ series as the camera built into Nest Hub Max, which will almost surely be ported over within the next year or so.

There’s the Nest x Yale lock, which is still exceedingly popular. You’ll still need the Nest app to set up and control some of the advanced settings of the deadbolt lock, but it functions for the most part with the Google Home app. It seems inevitable that Google will either fully migrate the lock to the Home app at some point, or just replace this product in time given its popularity. But, at the same time, Google has all but abandoned home security outside of cameras, and its partner ADT opted for another new Yale model for its updated security system.

Outside of that, there’s the Nest Protect smoke detector, a product Google has seemingly minimal interest in renewing given its still completely unsupported within the Home app. Google does still sell it, though, so a decision has to be made there eventually.

The Nest app probably won’t be fully shut down for a while yet, as it’s going to be needed for certain use cases as long as these products are still supported in any capacity, but it’s never been more clear that the Nest app is on life support.

Do you still use the Nest app at all, or have you fully shifted to the Home app?

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Top comment by F4LL0U7

Liked by 18 people

The Nest app is still better for fine-tuning fractions of a degree on the 3rd gen thermostat, and the 1st gen temperature sensors are only able to be scheduled via the Nest app. I also obviously use it for the smoke detectors.

The Nest app is also far more reliable for Home/Away Assist than Google Home's presence sensing. For some reason, when I have my phone's location tracked with the Home app to determine if I'm home or not, it's very unreliable. Using the Nest app, it works correctly 99% of the time. Of course, it ALL worked better when Nest Secure was still around.

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