Author Archives: Michele

Make connections that Matter in Google Home

We’re entering a new era of the smart home built on openness and collaboration — one where you should have no problem using devices from different smart home brands to turn on your lights, warm up your living room and set your morning alarm. All of them should work together in harmony.

Matter, the new smart home industry standard we developed with other leading technology companies, is making this possible. Whether you’re shopping for or building your own smart home devices, let’s take a closer look at how Matter can help you make more connections with Google products and beyond when it launches later this year.

Connect your favorite smart home brands

When you buy a Matter-enabled device, the set-up process will be quick and consistent. In just a few taps, you can easily link it to your home network, another smart home ecosystem and your favorite apps. Support for Matter through Fast Pair on Android makes it as easy as connecting a new pair of headphones. And because Matter devices connect and communicate locally over Wi-Fi and Thread, a wireless mesh networking technology, they’re more reliable and responsive — reducing lag and potential connection interruptions.

To help you get ready for Matter, we’ll update many Google Nest devices to be Matter controllers. This will let you connect all your Matter-enabled devices to Google Home, and control them both locally and remotely with the Google Home app, smart home controls on your Android phone or Google Assistant. Matter controllers will include the original Google Home speaker, Google Mini, Nest Mini, Nest Hub (1st and 2nd gen), Nest Hub Max, Nest Audio and Nest Wifi.

Meanwhile, Nest Wifi, Nest Hub Max and Nest Hub (2nd gen) will also serve as Thread border routers, allowing you to connect devices built with Thread — like backyard lights that need long-range connectivity — to your home network.

We’ve also rolled out a new Google Home site to help you explore everything you can do with your Google Home in one spot. You can discover thousands of smart home devices that work with Google Home and learn how to get the most out of your helpful home — including automated routines to make everyday life easier, safer and more convenient.

To make it easier to find products that work great with Google Home, we're updating our “Works with” partner program. Works with Hey Google is now Works with Google Home. Partner devices that carry this badge have gone the extra mile to build high-quality experiences with Google using Matter or our existing integrations. It’ll take some time for all our partners to start using the new badge — but if you spot either of these badges on a smart home product, you’ll know they easily connect with Google and our home control features like routines, voice control through Google Assistant devices and Android home controls.

Build more connected smart home devices

Developers, take note: With Matter, there’s no need to build multiple versions of a smart home device to work across different ecosystems. You’ll only have to build once, and that device will work right away with Google Home and other smart home brands. This means you can spend less time building multiple connectivity paths, and more time innovating and delivering devices and features.

To help you do that, we’ve launched a new Google Home Developer Center that brings together all our resources for developers and businesses. You can start learning today how to build smart home devices and Android apps with Matter, discover new features to integrate into your devices and explore marketing resources to help grow your business. You’ll also find new community support tools for device makers building with Google Home.

On June 30, we’ll launch the Google Home Developer Console, including two new software development kits (SDKs) to make it easy to build Matter devices and apps. The Google Home Device SDK is the fastest way to start building Matter devices. This SDK will also introduce Intelligence Clusters, which will share Google Intelligence — starting with Home & Away Routines — with developers who meet certain security and privacy requirements.

The new Google Home Mobile SDK will make it easy to build apps that connect directly with Matter devices using new built-in connectivity support in Android. This makes the set-up process simpler, more consistent and reliable for Android users. And with connectivity taken care of, developers can spend more time building unique features and experiences.

We can’t wait to see how you use Matter, Thread and Google Home to build and create the smart home experience that best suits you. Check out home.google and developers.home.google.com to learn more and sign up for future updates.

A smarter smart home from Google and Samsung

So many products come together to power a smart home—light bulbs, thermostats, TVs, speakers...the list goes on and on. To make it easier for you to control all of your connected devices, we’ve been working closely with manufacturers to make sure your devices communicate and work across the smart home ecosystem. Coming soon, your Assistant and Nest devices will now interoperate more easily with your Samsung smart devices in your home.

You’ll be able access and control your Nest devices, like Nest cameras, thermostats and doorbells with the SmartThings app—and even through Samsung smart home devices, like smart TVs and refrigerators. Previously, you could only do things like set the temperature remotely or view your camera feeds from your Nest devices from the Google Home app, but now you have more ways and more places to control your smart home from (And interested developers can learn more about our Device Access program).

Nest SmartThings

More Samsung smart home appliances and devices will also soon come with voice support from Google. So you can say “Hey Google, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.” And we recently announced that Google Assistant is available on Samsung’s latest lineup of Smart TVs, making it easy to turn your TV on or off, change channels and control the volume without even getting off your couch or digging for the remote. 

Setting up your smart devices will also be easier: Samsung now offers simple linking with your Google Assistant right from multiple Samsung apps, including SmartThings to streamline the process. Plus, we’ve also expanded the Google Assistant control of Samsung devices across six new languages (Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Korean and Japanese) to meet users in their native languages.

And to make it even easier to quickly control all your smart home devices, we’re working to bring one of our favorite features of Android 11 to Samsung’s new Galaxy smartphones. When you tap on "Devices" in the Quick Panel of the phone, you can choose an option among multiple apps and see all connected devices within the app on one screen.

Whether you’re starting the dishwasher or checking the porch for packages, Google, Samsung and SmartThings can make the increasingly connected home a little bit smarter. 

A smarter smart home from Google and Samsung

So many products come together to power a smart home—light bulbs, thermostats, TVs, speakers...the list goes on and on. To make it easier for you to control all of your connected devices, we’ve been working closely with manufacturers to make sure your devices communicate and work across the smart home ecosystem. Coming soon, your Assistant and Nest devices will now interoperate more easily with your Samsung smart devices in your home.

You’ll be able access and control your Nest devices, like Nest cameras, thermostats and doorbells with the SmartThings app—and even through Samsung smart home devices, like smart TVs and refrigerators. Previously, you could only do things like set the temperature remotely or view your camera feeds from your Nest devices from the Google Home app, but now you have more ways and more places to control your smart home from (And interested developers can learn more about our Device Access program).

Nest SmartThings

More Samsung smart home appliances and devices will also soon come with voice support from Google. So you can say “Hey Google, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.” And we recently announced that Google Assistant is available on Samsung’s latest lineup of Smart TVs, making it easy to turn your TV on or off, change channels and control the volume without even getting off your couch or digging for the remote. 

Setting up your smart devices will also be easier: Samsung now offers simple linking with your Google Assistant right from multiple Samsung apps, including SmartThings to streamline the process. Plus, we’ve also expanded the Google Assistant control of Samsung devices across six new languages (Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Korean and Japanese) to meet users in their native languages.

And to make it even easier to quickly control all your smart home devices, we’re working to bring one of our favorite features of Android 11 to Samsung’s new Galaxy smartphones. When you tap on "Devices" in the Quick Panel of the phone, you can choose an option among multiple apps and see all connected devices within the app on one screen.

Whether you’re starting the dishwasher or checking the porch for packages, Google, Samsung and SmartThings can make the increasingly connected home a little bit smarter. 

Better privacy and more flexibility with Nest devices

Homes are evolving quickly. We all started with one simple smart device (like a thermostat or a light bulb), but now many of us find ourselves living in homes with multiple devices from multiple companies. But privacy and data security hasn’t evolved with the growth of these devices.

Getting this right is the basis for the decisions we have been making at Nest. We’re living the commitments we published in May, putting your privacy and data safety first. While we’re focused on developing a more open platform, it must be grounded in security and safety, and that’s a tough balance to achieve.

Earlier this year, we announced that we’re moving from the Works with Nest program to Works with Google Assistant. Many of you had questions on how this will work. Today, we’re providing an update on what we’re doing to create an ecosystem that offers you greater flexibility to create a helpful home—one that’s just right for you. The Works with Google Assistant lets you control more than 30,000 devices from more than 3,500 partners, giving you lots of choices. 

We’re also adding new solutions to make Works with Assistant an even more flexible platform. That includes offering three additional ways to give you the integrations you’ve told us are important, and they’re combined with protections to keep your data private and secure. Here’s what you should know about our partners and your integrations:

  • With the Device Access program, we are enabling qualified partners to request secure  access and control of your Nest devices in their apps and solutions, providing you more choices to control your home. You’ll be able to opt-into the program, and you can always control which partners have access to which devices in your home. As an example, if you have a security system that offers a Device Access integration, you’ll be able to view and control your Nest cameras and other devices directly from your security provider’s app. Device Access partners must pass an annual security assessment from one of our authorized testers. You can rest easy knowing we’re doing the hard work to safeguard your Google data to our standards. 

  • Routines allow you to automate smart home experiences, and we’re expanding the Works with Google Assistant capabilities. Home Routineswill give you more flexibility to get the most out of your smart home devices. Soon we’ll be giving you a few new ways to experience Routines. First, you can choose to have your Nest devices trigger routines. For instance, if your connected smoke alarm identifies an emergency in your home, a Home Routine can flash your connected lights and turn them red to give you a visual cue. Or when it’s clear there’s nobody home, a Home Routine can turn down your thermostat, turn off your lights, and run your smart vacuum. Second, you can build your own Routines from scratch, or opt into common ones we've made for you. Third, some of the most innovative integrations were built by third party partners, so we’re also allowing partners to build custom routines. You’ll be able to browse and opt-in to using approved routines and choose to have Nest and other devices react and participate in that routine. You’ll always be in control, and can decide to opt in or out of these actions. All the while, your sensitive information won’t be shared, so your home data remains private.

  • We’ll also invite smart home developer enthusiasts to participate in our Device Access for Individualssandbox, allowing you to directly control your own Nest devices for your private integrations and automations.

The Device Access API is available today, and we have several partners with new integrations coming soon. Home Routines will be coming early next year, with partner-made routines available later in 2020. If you’re a developer or a Nest customer interested in the Device Access API, or access to the sandbox, you can find more information on our Device Access site. 

We’re doing the hard work to make your Nest devices more secure and protect your privacy long into the future. What this means for you is better privacy and data security, and the flexibility to safely work with thousands of products from partners to create your helpful home.