Google is turning Nest smart thermostat into the control center of smart home. With the launch of the "Works with Nest" certification project today, electronic devices, vehicles and universal remote controllers can all support the Nest intelligent thermostat to realize automatic control. Suddenly, the smart home world has become smaller.
Matt Rogers of Nest said that the idea behind this system is to create a practical and seamless experience in the living room, and at the same time, to sell more Nest devices.
Smart home is a highly fragmented industry. From smart light bulbs to networked thermostats, all smart home devices can be controlled by independent applications and live in their own world. A variety of electronic devices try to build bridges between different brands and connect different worlds, which requires the emergence of another electronic device and another application, which further complicates the problem.
With the project "Works with Nest", the smart thermostat of Nest has become the center of smart home. The project relies on sensors in Nest products, and the motion detection and machine learning technology of these products can also be used by other electronic devices.
"Works With Nest" ecosystem
At present, some of the most popular smart home equipment manufacturers have signed up to join the "Works With Nest" project, including LIFX, Logitech, Chamberlain and Whirlpool. With Whirlpool’s help, once the Nest thermostat notices the owner’s departure, the networked dryer will switch to Fan Fresh mode, so that the cycle of the dryer will not end early, but will continue to run, so that the washed clothes will not be wrinkled. With LIFX’s help, if Nest Protect notices an increase in carbon monoxide levels, the networked light bulb will turn red.
Google also plans to integrate IFTTT services so that users can customize the smart switches of Nest Protect and Thermostat. For example, with the help of IFTTT, users can write various preset messages, such as "If my Nest Protect finds smoke, please send a text message to my neighbor" or "If the thermostat is still below 72 degrees with the air conditioner turned on, please send a text message to me so that I can wake up the children."
Mercedes-Benz also participated in this project, and its specific model can tell the owner of Nest Learning Thermostat when to drive home, and then activate the heating or cooling equipment at the right time. In this way, once there is no one at home, there will be no waste of electricity.
Sometime this fall, Google Now will pass the "Works with Nest" project certification, allowing Android device users to control their thermostats anywhere on earth.
Finally, Google also cooperated with Jawbone to integrate Jawbone UP sleep tracking system into the ecosystem of Nest intelligent thermostat.
Jim Godfrey of Jawbone said: "Integrating with Nest will bring great benefits to our users because it creates a seamless experience for our users." Travis bogarde, vice president of product management and strategy of Jawbone, further pointed out: "It creates an excellent experience by combining great technology, insight and data (namely Nest and Jawbone)."
For Jawbone, the "Works with Nest" project is completely consistent with its core mission, which is to provide an open platform. Users only need to press the only button on Jawbone UP to activate the sleep tracking system and let Nest adjust the environment settings to night mode. Similarly, once the user wakes up, just press the button to change the Jawbone UP mode and switch the Nest to the "daytime" setting.
"Works with Nest" certification project still does not include many well-known systems, such as Philips Hue smart light bulb, Lutron smart switch and any kind of home locking system. These systems have joined the Wink smart home platform at present. Since American home surveillance camera startup Dropcam will soon be owned by Nest, it may also adopt "Works with Nest" certification.
At first glance, it sounds strange to use the thermostat as the control center of smart home, but Nest Learning Thermostat integrates enough sensors, so this strategy is also logical. Nest thermostat has built-in motion detector and Wi-Fi, which are two "sharp tools" to understand users’ behaviors, and also uses Zigbee wireless fidelity. Theoretically, a real smart home should not need a control panel to achieve continuous user interaction.
Seeking control of smart home
Google is not the only company seeking to unify all kinds of smart home devices. The innovation engine Quirky has just launched a plan of its own, and it is strikingly similar to "Works with Nest". Quirky’s platform is called "Wink", which integrates different smart devices into the same ecosystem. At present, Quirky has established cooperation with 15 companies, including startups such as General Electric, Honeywell, Philips and Rachio. They will launch nearly 60 products supporting Wink in July.
The $3.2 billion acquisition basically puts Google’s smart home ambition ahead of Apple, which has just launched a smart home solution called "HomeKit". As Matthew Panzarino pointed out earlier this month, HomeKit allows developers to track the status of devices or send instructions to them with a simple control system. HomeKit is the "spiritual companion" of Apple’s Bluetooth multipoint framework.
HomeKit is a powerful platform, and its potential even exceeds Google’s smart home plan. However, compared with Wink or "Works with Nest" project, HomeKit is still in the early stage of development, and the solutions of these two projects will bear fruit before Apple.
Even a well-known company like Google can’t master all parts of smart home. However, if it is vigorously promoted by Google and its "Works with Nest" partners, this Nest certification project is expected to become the "next big event", and finally the products produced by this project will be popularized on a large scale. This alone will enable Google to establish a dominant position in this field.
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