Google has made a flurry of smart home announcements, all powered by AI
Google has made a host of announcements for the smart home, not only in terms of a fourth generation of its popular Nest Learning Thermostat, but a new Google TV Streamer, and AI-powered features for existing Nest devices and the Google Home app.
If we told you the original Nest Learning Thermostat had been around for 13 years, you’d probably be quite surprised. Well, now in its 4th generation, the new Nest Learning Thermostat has been redesigned, offering a sleek, slim profile that makes it look like it’s floating on the wall.
The original Nest Thermostat took what was previously an ugly white box and made it much more interesting to look at, and the new Nest Thermostat (4th gen) takes this one step further. There’s a stainless steel border that clicks as you rotate it, while the domed crystal LCD display is 60% bigger than the third generation and gets rid of the bezels. There are also three metal finishes: Polished Silver, Polished Obsidian and Polished Gold.
A new Dynamic Farsight feature allows you to customize the home screen of the Nest Thermostat (4th gen) to show time, temperature, weather or outdoor air quality, and AI is being used to automatically make micro-adjustments based on your patterns. A feature called Smart Schedule sees AI create personalized energy-saving temperature schedules based on changes in behavior and motion detected in your home, which you can choose to accept or reject in the Google Home app.
The Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) will also analyze weather outdoors and how that impacts the temperature of your home inside, and it comes with a new pebble-shaped discreet Nest Temperature Sensor in the box, in order to manage hot and cold spots in the home. You can add up to six temperature sensors around your home, whilst also choosing which are active at different times.
There’s also a System Health Monitor feature on the new Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) that tracks your HVAC performance over time, sending you alerts if something doesn’t seem right. Elsewhere, a Smart Ventilation feature automatically ensures your ventilation system brings in fresh air when outdoor air quality is healthy and pauses it automatically if outdoor air quality deteriorates.
What’s the new Google TV Streamer all about?
The new Google TV streamer meanwhile, is the latest streaming device from Google, replacing Chromecast with a faster, more premium solution. It offers access to over 700,000 movies and shows, personalized content suggestions, and an ambient mode that will turn an idle TV into a work of art. Gemini will also offer full summaries, reviews and season-by-season breakdowns of content to make finding your next binge-watch easier.
There’s improved performance too, 4K HDR with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, as well as connectivity support for Matter and a built-in Thread border router, designed to make the Google TV Streamer enhance the entertainment and smart home experience.
What are the Gemini updates coming to the smart home?
Last but certainly not least on the Google smart home announcements is the Gemini updates. With those updates, Nest cameras will provide more detailed descriptions of events, so rather than just “animal detected” as a video description, they will say “the dog is digging in the garden”. There’s a new camera activity search function in the Google Home app too that is designed to make finding specific moments easier, like “did the kids come leave their bikes in the driveway?”.
Creating home automations is also becoming more simplified with the “Help me create” feature, allowing users to describe their desired actions in natural language. Google Assistant on Nest speakers and displays is also set to become more natural and helpful with the updates, understanding follow-up questions and conversational requests.
Price and availability
The Gemini features will initially roll out to Nest Aware subscribers in Public Preview later this year.
The Google TV Streamer is available for pre-order now. It will be available on September 24 for $99.99 from the Google Store and other third-party retailers. There has been no word on UK pricing as yet.
The Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) with its redesigned Nest Temperature Sensor (2nd gen) in the box can be pre-ordered at the Google Store and select retailers now for $279.99 in the US and $379.99 in Canada, with availability on August 20. Additional sensors can be purchased for $39.99 USD or $99.99 USD for a 3-pack. Again, no word on UK pricing as yet.
