Google replacing Works with Nest: A major change for Nest product users is that the Works With Nest program will stop. In its place comes Works with Google Assistant.
Google replacing Works with Nest
It may now be clear that Google is overhauling its smart home products, at least the branding thereof. Yesterday it was announced that the Google Home Hub will be known as the Nest Hub, which means that the hardware will bear the Nest name. However, the software, the platform, will transfer to Google.
A major change for Nest product users is that the Works With Nest program will stop. This program was created to link products to Nest equipment. For example Philips Hue lighting or a smart door lock. While these partner products will still be able to work with Nest, the program itself will disappear. Everything will come under the Works with Google Assistant platform from now on.
In the near future, users of Nest products will need to use their Google credentials to sign in to what was previously their Nest account and access Nest equipment through that credentials. The underlying platform is then the Google Assistant platform, on which thousands of products can already communicate with each other, for example via the company’s Home speakers.
Works with Google Assistant thus becomes the company’s smart home ecosystem, with the Nest hardware as part of it. By the end of August, all Works with Nest integrations with brands will stop and developers of those integrations must ensure that their products can communicate with Nest within the new Assistant platform.
According to Google, sharing sensitive data is an important reason for this step. Works with Nest gave many partners access to information about Nest products that Google believes they shouldn’t have. Consider, for example, data about your presence or absence, the temperature settings and the options for switching cameras on or off based on external events. From now on, Google itself wants to be the party that has this information in its possession and also determines what happens to it. The company wants to give as few external partners as possible access to this information, which is why everything is now integrated into Works with Assistant.
Within the Works with Google Assistant program, all Google Home products and Nest products will work together seamlessly. Adding Nest products to the Google Home app should be very easy, according to the company. The Google Nest Hub (the new smart display) therefore shows directly from the box who is at the door if you have a Nest doorbell. Google now uses Works with Google Assistant and the Home app as the central place to manage all your connected devices, whether from Google, Nest or partners.
Still, it remains to be seen how things will go, because direct integrations such as those of Philips Hue with Nest will disappear in August. Google can’t yet promise when this will be fully possible again through the Works with Google Assistant program, but the company expects all specific links should be back up and running by the end of the year. For example, it should be possible to turn off the Hue lights as soon as the Nest thermostat is set to absent. Until then, Hue will need a specific command, rather than being fully automated.
