Nest is sharing the love—or at least sharing their protocol. The company just announced Nest Weave, a communication protocol that will allow all sorts of smart home devices to communicate with each other, as well as devices like the Nest thermostat, the Nest Protect, and the Nest Cam.
Besides allowing all of these devices to talk directly to each other, Nest Weave promises to solve some of the problems you may encounter in the smart home. Some of the specific issues cited include the ability to connect power-constrained devices as well as devices that require low latency and redundancy.
Nest Weave uses WiFi and Thread, and promises to be reliable, compact, secure and scalable. In addition to integration with the Nest thermostat, the Nest Protect and the Nest Cam, the platform will allow third-party devices to tap into Home and Away states, smoke and carbon monoxide alerts, motion and sound alerts, and peak energy rush hour events to create new smart home options.
Nest says that the Yale Linus lock will be the first Works with Nest product to use Nest Weave. The Linus can be accessed via the Nest app, allowing users to check the status, lock and unlock the door, set up passcodes, and more. It also provides alerts and monthly access reports. Look for the Yale Linus to launch sometime in 2016.
According to Nest, Nest Weave will be able to start talking to other devices via a simple software update. Several companies have already committed to using Nest Weave, including Big Ass Solutions, Daikin North America, GE branded lighting controls, Hunter Douglas, iHome, Legrand, LIFX, Lutron Electronics, P&G, Philips hue, Rachio, Somfy, SkyBell, Tyco, and WeMo. Google also plans to add Nest Weave to the OnHub router. More are expected to follow as well.
In addition to Nest Weave, the company also debuted a new Nest Cam API, so that several products can connect to the wireless security camera. August, Mimo, Petnet, Philips hue and Skybell will start integrating products with the Nest Cam this month.
And finally, Nest is working on launching the Works with Nest Store, a one-stop online shop for all “Works with Nest” products. Currently, there’s an online store that offers the Nest thermostat, the Nest Protect, and the Nest Cam. However, the new Store will be available to customers later this year.
“Building a connected product is hard,” said Matt Rogers, vice president of engineering, Nest. “We’ve been doing it for the past five years and have first-hand experience with the challenges. That’s why we want to make it easier for developers. We’re offering proven technologies like Nest Weave, along with cloud services and the ability to integrate with the Nest app. Developers have an end-to-end solution when they work with Nest, and can use only the parts of the program that meet their needs.”
Nest Weave, Nest cloud services and the Nest app integration will be available to developers in 2016.
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