Google Nest — BrandWiki

Google Nest

key people	Rick Osterloh (SVP, Devices & Services) Rishi Chandra (VP/GM, Google Nest)

products	Smart speakers, smart displays, streaming devices, thermostats, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, cameras, home security systems, video doorbells, smart locks

owner	Alphabet Inc.

num employees	1,100

num employees year	2015

parent	Google LLC

homepage	store.google.com/category/connected_home

Google Nest, formerly branded Google Home, is a line of smart home products including smart speakers, smart displays, streaming devices, thermostats, smoke detectors, routers and security systems including smart doorbells, cameras and smart locks.[1]

The Nest brand name was originally owned by Nest Labs, co-founded by former Apple engineers Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers in 2010.[2] Its flagship product, which was the company's first offering, is the Nest Learning Thermostat, introduced in 2011. The product is programmable, self-learning, sensor-driven, and Wi-Fi-enabled: features that are often found in other Nest products. It was followed by the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in October 2013.[3] After its acquisition of Dropcam in 2014, the company introduced its Nest Cam branding of security cameras beginning in June 2015.[4]

The company quickly expanded to more than 130 employees by the end of 2012.[2] Google acquired Nest Labs for US$3.2 billion in January 2014, when the company employed 280. As of late 2015, Nest employs more than 1,100 and added a primary engineering center in Seattle.[5][6][7]

After Google reorganized itself under the holding company Alphabet Inc., Nest operated independently of Google from 2015 to 2018. However, in 2018, Nest was merged into Google's home-devices unit led by Rishi Chandra, effectively ceasing to exist as a separate business. In July 2018, it was announced that all Google Home electronics products will henceforth be marketed under the brand Google Nest.[8]

History

Nest Labs before acquisition by Google

Nest Labs was founded in 2010 by former Apple engineers Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers.[9] The idea came when Fadell was building a vacation home and found all of the available thermostats on the market to be inadequate, motivated to bring something better on the market.[6] Early investors in Nest Labs included Shasta Ventures and Kleiner Perkins.[10]

Acquisition by Google of Nest Labs, Dropcam, and Revolv

On January 13, 2014, Google announced plans to acquire Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in cash. Google completed the acquisition the next day, on January 14, 2014.[11]

Products

Nest Learning Thermostat

The Nest Learning Thermostat is an electronic, programmable, and self-learning Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat that optimizes heating and cooling of homes and businesses to conserve energy.[46] It is based on a machine-learning algorithm: for the first weeks users have to regulate the thermostat in order to provide the reference data set. Nest can then learn people's schedules, at which temperature they are used to and when. Using built-in sensors and phones' locations it can shift into energy-saving mode when it realizes nobody is at home.[47]

The Nest Thermostat is built around an operating system that allows interaction with the thermostat via spinning and clicking of its control wheel (or swiping and tapping on the 2020 Nest Thermostat), which brings up option menus for switching from heating to cooling, access to device settings, energy history, and scheduling. Users can control Nest without a touch screen or other input devices. As the thermostat is connected to the Internet, the company can push updates to fix bugs, improve performance and add additional features. For updates to occur automatically, the thermostat must be connected to Wi‑Fi and the battery must have at least a 3.7 V charge to give enough power to complete the download and installation [49]

Works with Nest

Works with Nest was a program that allowed third party devices to communicate with Nest products, such as virtual assistants, along with many third-party home automation platforms.[94][95] Additionally, many smart device manufacturers have direct integration with the Nest platform, including Whirlpool, GE Appliances, and Myfox.[96][97]

On May 7, 2019, it was announced that Works with Nest would be discontinued effective August 31, 2019. Users are being directed to migrate to Google accounts and Google Assistant integration instead; doing so will remove the ability to use Works with Nest.[98]

Litigation

In February 2012, Honeywell filed a lawsuit claiming that some of its patents had been infringed by Nest.

In April 2012, Nest stated they believe that none of the allegedly infringed patents were actually violated. Honeywell claimed that Nest infringed on patents pertaining to remotely controlling a thermostat, power-stealing thermostats, and thermostats designed around a circular, interactive design, similar to the Honeywell T87. However, Honeywell held patents that were almost identical to those that expired in 2004. Nest has taken the stance that they will see this through to patent court as they suspect Honeywell is trying to harass them, litigiously and financially, out of business.[103]

On May 14, 2013, Allure Energy also filed a lawsuit, alleging infringement of a patent on an "Auto-adaptable energy management apparatus".[104] First Alert sued Nest in 2014 in regards to voice alert functionality and a design trait of the Nest Protect,[105] despite the fact that the world's first talking smoke and carbon monoxide alarm was actually released by Kidde

Controversies

Hidden Nest microphone incident

Google Nest Guard contained a microphone that was not disclosed in any of the product specifications.[119] The microphone was discovered by the public in February 2019, after Google announced a new feature that would use that microphone for voice commands.[120] Users and reviewers were shocked, as the product's tech specs had never listed a microphone. Google claimed that it was an error when writing the product specifications. US Senators wrote an open letter to Google's CEO demanding answers and an in-person briefing.[121] They framed the incident as a major breach of consumer trust and raised specific security concerns.[122]

External links

References

Nick Statt, Dieter Bohn. Google Nest: Why Google finally embraced Nest as its smart home brand The Verge, 2019-05-09, retrieved 2019-10-09^
Steven Levy. Nest Gives the Lowly Smoke Detector a Brain — And a Voice Wired, Condé Nast, October 8, 2013, retrieved October 9, 2013^
Nilay Patel. Fire drill: can Tony Fadell and Nest build a better smoke detector?

Nest as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.

In August 2015, Google announced that it would restructure its operations under a new parent company, Alphabet Inc., with Nest being separated from Google as a subsidiary of the new holding company.[19]

In January 2016, some Nest thermostats stopped working, a fault attributed to a software update from two weeks earlier. There were no lawsuits, individual or class-action, due to an arbitration clause in the contract.[20][21]

All Revolv smart hubs, costing several hundred dollars, were deliberately remotely bricked on May 15, 2016;[22][23][24][25] notice was posted on the company's website in February.[26] The story became news on April 4. The "lifetime subscription" to Revolv's online service, which had been sold with the hub, was defined by Nest to be the lifetime of the device, which ended May 15.[27]

Nest's decision to brick the hubs, and its "acerbic" corporate culture, faced substantial criticism from within Google/Alphabet and in press coverage.[28] Many of Nest's staffers came from Dropcam and Revolv, and by November 2015, about 70 of about 1000 staffers had quit, causing management concern.[26][29] Some countermeasures had been taken in takeover deals, to financially discourage senior people from leaving before set dates.[15][26] Of the ~100 Dropcam staffers, about half had left by March 2016, when former Dropcam CEO Greg Duffy (who left 8 months after the takeover) wrote a post openly regretting selling his company to Nest.[30] He stated that about 500 people had left (of a 1200-person staff).[31]

On June 6, 2016, Tony Fadell, the Nest CEO, announced in a blog post that he was leaving the company he founded with Matt Rogers and stepping into an "advisory" role.[32] At this point the Nest acquisition was described by some press as a "disaster" for Google.[33] As of mid-June 2016, Nest's problems were considered symptomatic of the limited market for home automation. According to Frank Gillet of Forrester Research, only 6% of American households possessed internet-connected devices such as appliances, home-monitoring systems, speakers, or lighting. He also predicted this percentage would grow to only 15% by 2021. Furthermore, 72% of respondents in a 2016 British survey conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers did not foresee adopting smart-home technology over the next two to five years.[34]

Nest as a part of Google hardware division

On February 7, 2018, it was announced by hardware head Rick Osterloh that Nest had been merged into Google's hardware division, directly alongside units such as Google Home and Chromecast. It would retain its separate Palo Alto headquarters, but Nest CEO Marwan Fawaz would now report to Osterloh, and there were plans for tighter integration with Google platforms and software such as Google Assistant in future products.[35][36] Shortly after the announcement, co-founder and chief product officer Matt Rogers announced his plans to leave the company.[37]

On July 18, 2018, Nest CEO Marwan Fawaz stepped down. Nest was merged with Google's home devices team, led by Rishi Chandra.[38] During the Google I/O keynote on May 7, 2019, it was announced that Google Nest will now serve as the blanket branding for all of Google's home products. The Google Home Hub was retroactively renamed Google Nest Hub, while a new and larger version of the product is now available called the Nest Hub Max with both a larger screen and an amplified speaker, for a greater low-end audio experience. Also, product lines such as Chromecast, Google Home, and Google Wifi will now be marketed under the Google Nest brand.[39] In addition, Nest began to deprecate its own internal platforms, announcing the discontinuation of the existing "Works with Nest" program in favor of Google Assistant going forward, and pushing users to migrate themselves from Nest's account system to Google accounts. Google published Nest-specific privacy information outlining a commitment to transparency, not selling personal information, and giving users control of their data.[40]

In February 2019, a privacy incident affecting the Google Nest Guard system came about. The controversy stemmed from the fact that Nest Guard, a security device that was part of the Nest Secure system, contained a hidden microphone that was not disclosed in any product specifications.[41] It resulted in a public relations failure.[41]

Nest Protect

In October 2013, Nest announced its second product, the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector. The Nest Protect is available in both black and white (the black is exclusively sold through Nest directly[62]) and also comes in battery or AC-powered models. The Nest Protect features a multicolored light ring which is color-coded to indicate different operations, such as yellow to indicate an early warning or red if an alarm is sounding. The ring also has a motion detector which turns it white briefly when someone passes under to provide illumination. The Nest Protect warns of an alarm sounding briefly before it does. It is also able to communicate with the Nest Thermostat to provide the Auto-Away feature information that someone is present in the house, as well as to shut off the furnace in the event of a fire or carbon monoxide. It is available for sale in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

On April 3, 2014, sales of the Nest Protect were suspended, due to the potential for the alarm feature to be accidentally disabled.[63] [64][65] 440,000 existing Nest Protect units were recalled because of this problem on May 21, 2014, and a software update was distributed to disable this functionality.[66][67]

On June 17, 2015, Nest launched a new version of the Nest Protect (officially termed the "second generation"). The differences from the first generation Nest Protect includes an improved sensor, which uses two wavelengths of light, allowing it to detect both smoldering and flaming fires. The carbon monoxide sensor lasts longer, resulting in the new Nest Protect lasting 10 years, whereas the original Nest Protect lasts seven years. The new Nest Protect can be silenced using a smart device, if not in the US or Canada.[68] When not home, the new Nest Protect will test itself using a built-in microphone. Safety Rewards allows Nest Protect users that have their insurance through American Family and Liberty Mutual to get savings off their bill.[69]

areas served
former name	Nest Labs
type	Subsidiary
industry	Home automation
founded	2010
founders	Tony Fadell Matt Rogers
hq location city	Palo Alto, California
hq location country	U.S.

Google Nest

History

Nest Labs before acquisition by Google

Acquisition by Google of Nest Labs, Dropcam, and Revolv

Products

Nest Learning Thermostat

Works with Nest

Litigation

Controversies

Hidden Nest microphone incident

See also

Further reading

External links

References

Nest as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.

Nest as a part of Google hardware division

Partnership with ADT

Use with Amazon Alexa

End of support policies

Nest Protect

Nest Cam Indoor

Nest Cam Outdoor

Nest Cam IQ

Nest Secure

Nest Doorbell

Nest × Yale

Nest Wifi

Nest Cam with Floodlight

Parody after Google acquisition

History

The public's reaction

The public's reaction

US Senators open letter

History

The public's reaction

The public's reaction

US Senators open letter

Other

US Senators open letter

US Senators open letter