The Nest Protect smoke detector is one of the few products that hasn’t been renewed under Google’s umbrella, and beyond that it hasn’t even been integrated into this new era, as it still doesn’t really work in the Google Home app, but there’s finally some progress.
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The Nest Protect was first released all the way back in 2013, but remains for sale today with its useful smoke detector experience. Even now, there’s still no Nest Protect support in the Google Home app, but it’s apparently still incoming.
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Last September, Made by Google started offering refurbished products at slightly discounted prices. The two initial offerings went out of stock quite a long time ago, and the US Google Store is now expanding the refurbished lineup to include Nest smart home products.
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Back in November, the Nest to Google Account migration began to improve 2FA security, as well as provide “seamless product integration” between smart home and Assistant devices. The Nest Protect wast not included in that initial transition, but Google in recent months has promised that the oversight will be addressed.
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As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I’ve been Nest-ifying my house lately. First came the Nest Thermostat E, then came the Nest Secure, then came a couple Nest Cam IQs (still working on installing the outdoor model…), and this week I’ve topped things off with a Nest Protect.
I’m going to dive deeper into my experiences with Nest Cam and Nest Secure in forthcoming episodes, but this morning I felt compelled to write about the most recent addition to the group: Protect. Actually, I haven’t even “used” it, and that’s part of the point I want to make here.
First released in 2014, with a second generation available a year later, the Nest Protect is a smart fire alarm that works well with an ecosystem of third-party smart home devices. At CES 2017, GE announced a new integration that allows Nest Protect to detect fires in appliances, take measures, and quickly alert homeowners.
From 9to5Toys.com:
Starting later this week you can expect some notable Black Friday deals on Nest’s rarely discounted smart home accessories. Leaked ads and early sales from major retailers have given us a good idea of what types of deals to expect from Nest, but now we’ve received the full lowdown:
All of the discounts are set to go live starting Thanksgiving day at 5pm PT and run until November 30 at 11:59pm PT.
Follow 9to5Toys throughout Black Friday to get up-to-the-minute news on the best deals.
The 2nd generation Nest Protect has only been available in Canada and the United States since its launch, but Google today added five new countries to the product’s availability list on the Google Store. As of today, customers in Belgium, Canada, France, Ireland, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the United States (except Puerto Rico) can purchase Nest’s new CO2 detector.
In case you missed it, Nest unveiled the new Nest Protect last month, and with it comes a new split spectrum sensor to detect different kinds of smoke, a new smoke chamber to prevent false positives, new software features, and the opportunity to get a discount on home insurance. It’s available on the Google Store and from Nest.com for $99 (although currently out of stock through the former).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=METDdcmklVE
A couple new hardware items have just hit Google’s online store – the just-announced Nest Protect (2nd gen) and Nest Cam, and Razer’s Forge TV.
Following the Nest Cam outed by Best Buy earlier today, Nest did in fact take the stage this morning to announce its new lineup of products. Besides the Nest Cam, Tony Fadell and company showed off the 2nd generation Nest Protect smoke detector, a new mobile app for Android and iOS that brings all of the company’s new products together, and more. Unfortunately, the company’s flagship Nest Thermostat didn’t get any hardware upgrades today…
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Logitech, maker of the popular Harmony series of remotes, announced in a blog post today that it is partnering with Google-owned Nest for deeper integration between their respective products. Logitech says that owners of the latest Harmony remotes can now have all of their entertainment devices automatically power off when a Nest Protect alert begins to sound.
Shortly after Google acquired Nest, Tony Fadell’s company behind the smart thermostat and smart smoke/carbon monoxide detector, the company ran into a patch of unrelated issues with its Nest Protect product launched months earlier with reports of false alarms from many users and an issue with the ‘wave to dismiss’ feature touted as a key benefit of the product. A soft recall later followed remotely disabling the dismiss feature after a safety bug was discovered followed by a reduced price once it went back on sale.
While the ability to motion to dismiss an alarm is still disabled as the company works toward better implementing it reliably, current and future Nest Protect owners will benefit from new features delivered through a software update for the product. Steam Check, a feature that takes advantage of the device’s humidity sensor and an advanced algorithm, now allows the Nest Protect to distinguish smoke from steam by determining the presence of moisture. Steam from hot water shouldn’t be a reason to panic, and the Nest Protect says this feature will reduce the number of false alarms for users.
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Update: The Nest Protect is also now available on the Google Play Store for the same $99 prices. Previously, the Nest Thermostat was the only Nest device available from Google.
Earlier this year, 440,000 Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detectors were recalled following the discovery of a critical safety flaw that could accidentally deactive the system. Today, Nest has put the Protect back on sale at a reduced price of $99—previously $129. However, the “wave” feature that allowed the user to disable the alarm with a hand gesture has been removed.
In the blog post announcing the return of the Protect, the company boasted some of its safety statistics and recounted the story of one Nest Protect user who was alerted to the presence of carbon monoxide in his home by the device, which saved his life. Nest’s Doug Sweeny writes:
