Philips Hue is dropping its Works with Nest functionality next week on November 17th, The Ambient reports. In a notice shown in the Philips Hue app, the company warns that “integration with Nest Thermostat, Nest Cam and Nest Protect will be discontinued” from this date. However, the notice adds that “this will only be temporary” since much of the functionality is expected to be replaced in the Google Home App as Google transitions to the Works with Hey Google platform.
As well as the notice in its app, Philips Hue also announced the changes in a blog post published to its website.
The change comes over a year after Google announced it was winding down the Works with Nest smart home program. At the time, it said it would not allow any new Works with Nest integrations after August 31st 2019, but that existing ones would be allowed to continue. Now, however, Philips Hue is dropping support for the old platform.
Here’s the full notice being shown to Philips Hue users, according to The Ambient:
“Google is transitioning its ‘Works with Nest’ programme to the ‘Works with Hey Google’ programme. Related to this, Philips Hue integration with Nest Thermostat, Nest Cam and Nest Protect will be discontinued from November 17, 2020.
This will only be temporary, as Google is building existing Works with Nest features into the Google Home app. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”
Works with Nest currently allows Google’s smart home devices to control its smart bulbs. For example, a room’s lights can be set to turn off automatically when a Nest Cam senses it’s empty, or turn on when a Nest Protect fire alarm detects smoke.
The Philips Hue app notes that similar functionality is expected to appear soon in the Google Home app via the new Works with Hey Google program. The Ambient notes that some functionality is taking a while to arrive, but that at least one popular Works with Nest feature recently started rolling out. Last month Google added “Presence sensing” to the Google Home app, which uses a combination of smartphone geofencing and motion sensors in smart home devices to know when you’re home.
