Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Nest Thermostat Gaining Apple HomeKit Support Starting Today via Matter

Felder71 said:
I use Homebridge for my alarm system and garage door opener and it is next to flawless. I pretty much have forgotten that they are not Homekit native. That said, I definitely prefer Homekit native if at all possible and I was finally looking at getting thermostats so now maybe the Nest is a good option. Waiting to see how well they work after the updates.

EDIT - One thing Homebridge is no good for is HomeKit Secure Video. You can't make Ring cameras support that no matter what. So getting compatible cameras is best.
Click to expand...
Good point about HomeKit secure video, but in my experience it works terribly. Exporting videos is painful & slow. Every time I try to bring up a HomeKit video more than ~12 hours old HomeKit crashes. Ring makes recorded videos much more accessible.
 
HowEver said:
The Nest app for the older model works great.

Although every week it asks if it should join a Google account rather than a Nest account. Hell, no.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I get that too but just last week I got noticed that it's going to be mandatory and the Nest App will no longer work.
 
uller6 said:
Good point about HomeKit secure video, but in my experience it works terribly. Exporting videos is painful & slow. Every time I try to bring up a HomeKit video more than ~12 hours old HomeKit crashes. Ring makes recorded videos much more accessible.
Click to expand...

Can't say I have that issue at all, but maybe we have different use situations. I don't export a ton though - it's honestly there for "security" and to keep tabs on my cat while we are away.
 
zorinlynx said:
Heh me too. I have an automation set to turn it on 15 minutes before I leave work, but I had turned it off that day due to massive thunderstorms. So I had a chance to see how fast it would turn on via Siri.
Click to expand...
You know you can also just have Home track whether you(and or your family members) are currently home, right?
 
Felder71 said:
Can't say I have that issue at all, but maybe we have different use situations. I don't export a ton though - it's honestly there for "security" and to keep tabs on my cat while we are away.
Click to expand...

I get it. Mine points at my driveway where the motion detection gets every car that drives by and every person who walks by the sidewalk. I have a new video every ~3 minutes.
 
alexandr said:
You know you can also just have Home track whether you(and or your family members) are currently home, right?
Click to expand...
Of course! But I like the A/C to turn on before I leave work so the house is nice when I get home. 15 minutes before I leave work + 20 minute commute = nice cool house when I walk in the door, like it'd never been off at all.
 
  • Like
Reactions: alexandr
zorinlynx said:
Of course! But I like the A/C to turn on before I leave work so the house is nice when I get home. 15 minutes before I leave work + 20 minute commute = nice cool house when I walk in the door, like it'd never been off at all.
Click to expand...
Just making sure! Yes, I also like to precool :) Usually just do it manually. Like ventilating my car :D
 
If you run a Home Assistant server, you could have been using Nest and Siri for maybe a could years already. More importantly, you could just about any smart thermostat with Siri.

Home Assistant is free and open source and runs on just about anything including Raspberry Pi, very old PC notebooks, or in my case it runs inside a virtual machine on a headless 2011 Mac Mini.
 
I wanted this for YEARS because I just preferred the physical design of the Nest over Ecobee. But the newest generation Ecobee actually looks better than the Nest now in my opinion so too little too late for me. I love my Ecobee!
 
uller6 said:
Whelp, I'm running my original Nest learning thermostat with HomeKit through Homebridge. It works great!
Click to expand...
Me too! Along with my MyQ garage door opener, Nest cameras, Nest | Yale door locks and my Nest Secure. Although Nest Secure will get shut down in April 2024.
 
OMG, did hell just freeze over? Time to buy two new Nest Thermostats and sell these old ones on eBay.

Yes, like others, I'm running mine through home assistant, but I'm trying to move as much off of that system and to native HK support.
 
babalougots said:
I have the original Nest thermostat and use Starling Hub for HomeKit integration. It is flawless.
Click to expand...
Such an incredible product. Begs belief that google couldn't sort Homekiy integration before now. I've had Starling since it was first released. Like you said - flawless.
 
  • Like
Reactions: babalougots
But will my data be safe ?
Is google going to be extracting information still, I can not see them giving that up.
Its one of the reasons I will not have Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc etc appliances or Apps in my house.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gusmula
But can you use it without Google snooping on whether or not you are home and all of your other data?

Until then I'm sticking with my Ecobee on HomeKit (without the Alexa integration). But I love the industrial design of the Nest.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gusmula
How will this work? Will you have to search for Nest on HomeKit or will it show up on its own And ask if you want to add it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jocamero
Dorv said:
Not surprised the budget Nest E isn't supported.

But ultimately while I have Homebridge set up, the Nest is the one device I prefer using the built in app instead of Home for. Despite having a bunch of stuff in Home, I just haven't really groked the use case for the thermostat living there yet.
Click to expand...
The use case is one less app… who doesn’t want that? I mean.. the framework is called “HomeKit” and the app is called “Home” and last I checked your AC system is in your Home and it probably makes sense for the control of it to live alongside other Home devices in the Home app controlled via the HomeKit framework.. I think you see where I’m going with this.

I think the better question is why do you think it makes sense to use the Nest app for exactly one device?
 
torontotim said:
Sure, if you're only talking about a single device like a thermostat, it makes perfect sense to replace it with a HomeKit supported model if it's that important to you.

But of course, if you only have a single device like a thermostat that is already supported by a reasonable app like the Nest app, then why bother lifting a finger or spending a dime to move it to HomeKit.

I have the Starling hub and through it I can access my Nest thermostat, Nest Doorbell and multiple Nest cameras.

Frankly, having it integrated into Apple Home isn't all that important even with all those devices, as there isn't much added value relative to the native Nest app. But I was curious to see how well it would work so I grabbed one and plugged it in. Works like a charm.
Click to expand...
You should ditch the Starling hub and switch to Homebridge and also look into Scrypted. ;)
 
Felder71 said:
I use Homebridge for my alarm system and garage door opener and it is next to flawless. I pretty much have forgotten that they are not Homekit native. That said, I definitely prefer Homekit native if at all possible and I was finally looking at getting thermostats so now maybe the Nest is a good option. Waiting to see how well they work after the updates.

EDIT - One thing Homebridge is no good for is HomeKit Secure Video. You can't make Ring cameras support that no matter what. So getting compatible cameras is best.
Click to expand...
https://www.scrypted.app/ is what you’re looking :)
 
I just use the starling hub purchased it before I learned about home bridge. What's cool is that it brings all Google nest devices over to HomeKit even the doorbell camera and smoke detectors
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back