Google Home isn't good news for Nest

OK, Google, what’s up with Nest?

You just unveiled your widely anticipated smart home device, Google Home. Like Amazon Echo, it’s an always-listening device that can answer queries, check schedules and work with third-party smart home devices, including those from Nest.

I should be happy about that.

Dotted around my home are four Nest devices: two Nest Thermostats, a Nest Cam (formerly a Dropcam) and Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector. I can control the thermostats with my Amazon Echo. By the fall, I might be able to get my hands on Google Home and let it access and control these devices.

It’s a win-win, right?

Here’s my problem and it starts with this guy:

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

This is Mario Queiroz and he’s on Google’s Chromecast team. Chromecasts are Internet set-top devices that, unlike Apple TV, don’t really sit on top of or beside the TV, they tend to hang off an HDMI port. They give access to a world of Internet-based TV content, including Netflix and Hulu. His team also makes Chromecast Audio, which streams audio from your mobile devices to your favorite home speakers.

His team sounds like the right one to build Google’s first smart home device. I mean, who else would Google have used? I don’t know. How about Nest?

Nest is not a disinterested third-party. It is owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company and was bought when Google was still the overarching parent.

Here’s what Queiroz had to say about Nest:

“[Google Home] will support the most popular home networking systems so you can easily control your lights, thermostats, light switches and more, including our own Nest devices.”

So Google acknowledged that it owns Nest and that it will work with Google Home, but it was, at best, a “by the way” mention

As a Nest owner, the fact that Google let the Chromecast team design and build Google Home and is all but ignoring a sibling brand with extensive smart home chops is cause for concern.

Nest is not the chosen one

Why, you might wonder, wasn’t it Nest CEO Tony Fadell up on the Google I/O keynote stage introducing Google Nest Home?

Apparently, that was at least partly Fadell’s own fault. In March, The Information wrote an extensive report on Nest’s struggles and how Fadell’s approach to product development may be slowing the wheels of progress. 

Fadell wasn’t shy about voicing his concerns, blaming too-rapid company growth and the new fiscal discipline at Alphabet.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Fadell, though, is capable of designing and delivering exquisite products. Even before the extraordinary Nest thermostats, Fadell was known as the “father of the iPod.” His design ethos and approach rather closely mirrors that of the late Steve Jobs. He worries endlessly over aesthetics and features.

Perhaps if Fadell were still at Apple, that approach would be championed, but Google clearly felt the hot breath of Amazon on its neck. Google CEO Sundar Pichai even tipped his cap to the company when introducing Queiroz, who then announced Google Home: “Credit to the team at Amazon for creating a lot of excitement in this space.”

Amazon has reportedly already sold millions of Echos and Alexa, Amazon’s direct Google Assistant competitor, is already spreading to its other hardware and third-party devices. And if Apple delivers Siri Home hardware in the fall and Google is not prepared to answer with something, it could be game over.

I guess.

No vote of confidence

However, here’s my concern: Nest is still a very viable company with excellent products that millions of people like me are buying and integrating into their homes. We’ve done so with the sense – and proof – that this is an ecosystem. Nest hardware now all works with the same, single app. The devices are increasingly aware of each other. It’s also open enough to work with third-party systems like Alexa.

“Google went out of their way to show that Nest is a separate company, like Google,” said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, “It has to be embarrassing to Nest to get pre-empted by Home and an indicator that Google's not waiting for Nest to build out their smart home vision.”

Google just sent a clear signal that Nest will have to go it alone.

By not going to Nest (or, probably more accurately, not waiting for Nest), Google’s own smart home technology expert, Google just sent a clear signal that Nest will have to go it alone. Even though it’s part of Alphabet/Google, the company with the most data and deepest machine learning and AI, Nest probably can’t expect any better access to this intelligence than any other third-party partner. It looks like Nest will not have a seat at Google’s smart home table. It will be less of a brother, and more of a distant cousin.

It’s a reality that deeply shakes my confidence in Nest and its future and forces me to choose between Google’s smart home ecosystem (clearly Google Home will have its own app – one of them being Chromecast) and Nest’s.

A Nest spokesperson had a rosier view of the situation when they responded to my request for comment: 

"We're excited about the integration opportunities between Google Home and Nest products and we meet regularly – on a daily basis – with the team at Google.

However, if Google has lost confidence in Nest, how much support will the company get in the future? My hope now is that Alphabet sells them to someone who appreciates Fadell’s approach to product.

Isn’t Apple building some kind of Siri Home Hub?

UPDATED 8:05 p.m. ET with statement from Nest.

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