Your Nest speakers and Hubs can now detect your presence for automation

Nest presence sensing is getting an upgrade, and you’ll no longer need to rely solely on your thermostat, Nest Guard, Nest Protect, or Nest x Yale smart lock to let Google know if you’re at home. Traditionally, walking past your sensors built into these devices would cause the Home app to detect you and determine that certain actions were authorized to be taken. Initially, this was determined in conjunction with your phone’s location.

Now, your Nest Hubs (2nd gen) and speakers are joining the fold, and this is a big deal because these are the devices that most people bought into at the ground floor while considering the switch to smart home technology. More specifically, the Nest mini is popular among most people, so being able to automate some tasks when you’re at home or nearby without a large monetary investment means that regular consumers can now become power users.

Google Nest speaker or display: Notes if someone interacts with the device using touch or voice control.

Google Nest Help

At this time, you’ll have to opt-in to this new feature via the Home app by visiting the Settings and then tapping “Features”. Google states that ambient noises alone will not be enough to trigger the automations you set up, so fear not!

Anyone with a modern Nest device should know that the sensing takes place by way of the Soli sensor built in. Older units make use of activity and occupancy sensors to detect if someone is in the room. As always, these sensors are not cameras, but sensor data is still just as valuable to companies like Google, so be sure that you really want to use this as it collects more information on you, your family and your habits. However, with a Nest device in your home at all, that’s a decision you’ve likely already made.