Google Store Easter egg foreshadows demise of the Nest App

Google is close to wrapping up its month-long run of “Daily Specials” and while the deals haven’t been anything to write home about, Fred Armisen’s videos are worth stopping by the Google Store for a quick laugh. One of the recent promotions featured a discount on the installation of a Nest x Yale smart lock. The video featured Fred relaxing on the couch in his familiar lounge suit while his “brother” was on the front porch trying to gain entrance with mom’s lasagna. Funny stuff. You can check it out below.

https://youtu.be/AAMcFZwv-2k

It went unnoticed by most but one eagle-eyed viewer spotted something very interesting in this video. As Android Police notes, Fred unlocks the downstairs door with his phone. Not a big deal, right? Actually, if you look closely around the 0:39s mark of the video you will see he’s not using the Nest App. No, instead Fred unlocks his smart lock with the Google Home app. That’s a bit shocking because currently, that’s not a feature you’ll find in Google’s mobile home controller.

Is this simply Google teasing an upcoming feature for the Google Home app or could this be the bell tolling for Nest’s mobile application? Personally, I think the latter would be a smart move on Google’s part and here’s why. When Google reforged the Nest brand, the company slowly but surely has been moving all of its smart home hardware under the Nest branding. For most consumers, it wasn’t a big deal. Home Hub, Nest Hub, who cares. It’s a #madebygoogle smart home product and it has the Assistant inside. However, the Google Home app has become synonymous with setting up all of your Google-y and Google-comapatible smart things. If you buy a third-party smart bulb, you use the Google Home app to set it up and control it. It makes no sense for Nest products to have a separate application.

As a matter of fact, I opened my Google Home app this morning to see if perhaps I could find the smart lock that’s on the front door of our office. It wasn’t there. However, if you head to the section where you can add a new device, you’ll find an option to set up a smart lock. It doesn’t work, yet. It actually points you to the Nest App but check out the verbiage.

Seems to me that Google is working to bring Nest set up and control to the Home app and honestly, that’s exactly how it should be.You can already control your non-Nest locks from your Assistant-enabled smart displays. Control for third-party and Google products should live in the Home app because that’s what consumers are familiar with and it works very well. Leave Nest as the hardware arm for the smart home tech and let all the software and control rest under the Home umbrella. Google did a good job building the Home branding. It would be a shame to not leverage it for all the of the company’s hardware. What do you think? Does the Nest app need to go away?

Source: Android Police