Nest Secure will soon moonlight as the world’s most expensive Google Home Mini
Nest Secure hasn’t launched in the UK yet, but when it does it will have one more party trick up its sleeve. It’s going to double up as a Google Home Mini.
The security system will soon receive an over-the-air update that’ll add Google Assistant to the home alarm system, letting you talk to Google directly via the Guard Hub and keypad.
Related: Google Assistant vs Alexa
You’ve been able to arm Nest Secure via Google Assistant since it first came available, but that crucially required you to speak to your phone or another Google Home device.
Now that you can talk directly to the system, leaving the house should be a little bit smoother. For obvious reasons though, you can’t disarm the device with your voice: that would make life a little too easy for burglars.
If you’re uneasy about the idea of a microphone hidden away in the Nest Secure just listening away to your every move, Nest’s parent company Google has a few words to put your mind at ease.
“The Google Assistant on Nest Guard is an opt-in feature, and as the feature becomes available to our users, they’ll receive an email with instructions on how to enable the feature and turn on the microphone in the Nest app,” a Google spokesperson told The Verge.
“Nest Guard does have one on-device microphone that is not enabled by default,” they continued, adding that the microphone is only enabled once it hears the wake words of “OK Google” or “Hey Google”.
Of course, all of these reassurances do us a fat lot of good in the UK, where the Nest Secure is still yet to emerge. It’s been out in the US since 2017, but we’re still none the wiser as to when it will appear in Blighty.
Related: Google Assistant guide
Last we heard, 2019 is a possibility, but even that feels flimsy. Last year, Nest told The Ambient that it still needed to get its “full security story” in order – meaning that cellular issues needed to be fixed, and security partners arranged. We’ve heard nothing since, which suggests these problems may still be on a to-do list, somewhere.
But it’s nice to know that when it does finally arrive over here it’ll have one more ability.
Does Google Assistant make Nest Secure a more exciting product? Let us know what you think on Twitter @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
