Nest has delivered a pair of synergistic features that will make its smart home ecosystem more efficient, inclusive and intuitive.
Now democratized, Nest allows up to 10 people to access a smart home setup so that members of a given household no longer have to share passwords. Members of a Nest family account can all have their say in dictating how the Nest Thermostat appropriates the services of a home's HVAC system.
Family plan members can all receive notifications from Nest Protect and copies of monthly Home Reports. They can all survey their home remotely via Nest Cam too.
The restructuring of the Nest ecosystem also strengthens the second feature the company introduced: Home/Away Assist.
While some other smart home ecosystems rely on an administrator's mobile device to determine if anyone is home, a process known as geofencing, Nest's system accounts for the presence or absence of every Family Plan member's smartphone.
"When family members opt in, it lets Home/Away Assist use data from their phones - Android or iOS," Nest says. "So Home/Away Assist will switch to Away only if everyone is out. And it won't turn down the heat if someone is in a room not visible to any activity sensors."
Those activity sensors Nest mentions are also key to Home/Away Assist. They will be on the lookout for movement to help the system determine if a home is occupied or not and their accuracy will rely on the learning algorithms.
"We've wanted to do Home/Away Assist for a long time now. But more importantly, we wanted to do it right," says Nest. "By combining sensor data, algorithms and multiple phones, we think we've nailed it."
Nest stressed that its products don't track users, and Home/Away Assist only seeks to determine whether or not anyone is home.
"And we keep your information safe and secure by encrypting our connections and staying up to date on the latest threats," Nest says.
Third-party products, certified to work with Nest, will also respect the determinations of Home/Away Assist.
The new Nest features are live now, and an app update is all that's required to access them.
