- Google says new Nest devices are in the pipeline
- We can expect the gadgets “in the coming months and years”
- Two older pieces of hardware have been discontinued
If you were getting the impression that Google’s focus on Pixel phones and AI models meant that the company was ignoring its Nest smart home kit, think again: Google says “more helpful home devices” are on the way “in the coming months and years”.
That promise of future hardware was made in a blog post (via 9to5Google) that also announced that the Nest Protect smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector, and the Nest x Yale Lock smart lock, were being discontinued.
It’s perhaps no surprise that it’s the end of the line for those two pieces of hardware, which haven’t been updated in several years – but it seems Google remains committed to smart home devices and to the Nest brand in general.
The blog post points to the Google TV Streamer and the 4th-gen Nest Thermostat (both launched last August) as evidence that it’s still interested in hardware for the home, even if there haven’t been a huge number of launches in recent times.
New Nests
Besides the streaming box and smart thermostat, the current Nest range of devices covers security cameras, video doorbells, smart speakers, and smart displays. It sounds as though at least some of those gadgets could be updated this year.
We know that Google is busy swapping out Google Assistant for Google Gemini on its devices and in its software, so that would appear to be a good reason to push out some updated Nest speakers and displays as well.
New models are certainly due: the last new smart speaker we had was the Nest Audio, launched in September 2020, while the most recent smart display to arrive was the 2nd-gen Nest Hub, which made its debut in March 2021.
Amazon is busy upgrading Alexa on its smart home hardware, which might push Google into action – and there are even reports that Echo speakers and displays could be rebranded as Alexa devices in the near future.
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