Google will stop Works with Nest APIs on August 31 31

Google will end its Works with Nest program on August 31, which allows Nest products to communicate with third-party products and services via an API. That means links between Nest products and services like Ifttt will no longer work in September.

Nest says in a blog post that it wants to offer one “experience” for both developers and consumers under the Works with Google Assistant program. This program will include both Nest products and products from third-party manufacturers. According to Nest, it contains more than 30,000 products at the time of writing.

In the old Works with Nest program, third-party vendors and services could control Nest products through the Nest API, but Google wants to stop that for privacy reasons. Nest vice president Rishi Chandra tells Variety that “a small number of extremely controlled partners will gain access to additional data if consumers give their explicit consent.”

In concrete terms, this means that all connections between Nest products and services from third-party developers will no longer work from August 31. For example, if someone has set up via Ifttt that a Nest thermostat should turn on when the smart lighting is turned on, Ifttt uses the Nest API. After August 31, this will no longer be possible. Homey devices will also no longer work with Nest devices. In an email to customers, Homey calls this a ‘breach of trust’ on the part of Google and unfair policy that does not benefit consumer freedom.

According to Nest, such automated actions will soon have to run via the Works with Google Assistant platform. Home automation developers are advised by Nest to integrate their devices or services with the Works with Google Assistant platform.

The change to the Works with Nest policy is in line with Google’s new policy to release all Home and Nest devices under the Nest flag. The interview with Variety shows that Google does this for marketing purposes. All successors of, for example, the Google Home speaker will also be released under the Nest name. Nest Accounts will also migrate to Google Accounts; Nest Accounts will still receive invitations for this. When users migrate their Nest Accounts, Works with Nest connections will stop working, even if migrated before August 31.