Homekit and Google Nest Update

Last year I wrote about installing a bridge program to enable Siri to control my Nest thermostat. Recently Google, which owns Nest, announced that the “Works with Nest” program and APIs will be discontinued as of the end of August this year. Although the original announcement seemed to indicate that apps using the Works with Nest APIs would stop working, Google backtracked a bit in a later announcement, saying that existing integrations will continue to work, but no new features or integrations will be added after August.

What this means for Homebridge-Nest users

• If you have a working Homebridge-Nest setup, like I do, it should continue to work for the foreseeable future.

• The authors of the Homebridge-Nest plugin have stopped updating it, and in fact, are seeking someone to take over ownership. As a result, if you update to a newer node version or to a newer version of Homebridge itself, the Nest plugin may stop working.

• Since it is no longer possible to set up a Nest Developer account, it is impossible to configure the Homebridge-Nest plugin. So if you don’t already have a Nest Developer account, you are out of luck.

Watch this space for updates

I’ll keep an eye on the Homebridge Nest world to see whether the developers come up with a way to bridge between Apple’s Homekit and Google Assistant, and report my findings in a later post