Last week at Google I/O, some new details regarding the Nest brand were shared. Specifically, Google announced that it was bringing the Nest and Home brands under one roof as “Google Nest.” One change that had users up in arms, though, was the shutdown of the “Works with Nest” program. Today, Google has posted an update on what that shutdown means.
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.
Belkin’s “Wemo” lineup of app-controlled smart home accessories is getting support for the Works with Nest program, which means you can now interface the smart thermostat with Belkin’s Wemo products in various ways.
Your Nest smart thermostat should get a little smarter at some point over the next week as the company rolls out version 4.3 of the software, providing improved auto-scheduling and faster access to info at-a-glance.
A single push of the ring displays the information shown above, which includes weather, outdoor temperature and humidity. This has, says Nest, been the biggest customer request, allowing them to check what they should wear before heading out in the morning. Getting access to additional information, like yesterday’s energy usage or tomorrow’s schedule, is now available simply by turning the ring left or right …
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Nest, makers of smart thermostats and smoke detectors, announced today that it is expanding its platform to be compatible with even more hardware and third-party home automation software. Namely, the company’s “Works with Nest” program has been announced to now include Dropcam—the Nest-owned home security camera—and the company also says that its products will now work great with a variety of home automation systems including those from URC, RTI, Crestron and Control4.
Now we’ve added Dropcam to Works with Nest. When your Nest Protect alarm goes off, Dropcam records a clip of the smoke or carbon monoxide event and saves it for you, regardless of whether you pay for Cloud Recording. And when you set your Nest Thermostat to Away and walk out the door, Dropcam automatically turns on motion alerts so you’ll know if anyone’s in the house.
While integration with Dropcam seems handy, the announcement of Nest’s devices now working with other home automation software is equally as important. These pre-existing systems control a wide variety of aspects of home automation including lighting, music, and more—and now you can add Nest to the list. Additionally, LiftMaster’s MyQ technology was announced yesterday to also be joining the ranks among hardware that works with Nest.
Last night we discussed Google and Nest’s plans to make the Nest smart appliances a hub of sorts partnering with various services to make the Nest smart thermostat and smoke detector even smarter. Now the Android app for the Nest appliances was updated to support the mentioned “Works with Nest” initiative.
