If you’ve been around the block with smart ecosystems, you’ve probably seen a few different names pop up over time. IFTTT, Z-Wave, SmartThings, and more. Arguably, the most well known, most sought after, and most comprehensive system is “Works with Nest.” Works with Nest is a system that basically gained notoriety through the Nest Learning Thermostat and worked its way outward.
What started as a simple way to find cross-functionality with a thermostat has grown into a juggernaut, full of so many partnerships and opportunities that you may never have enough room in your house for all of them. Here’s a little bit more about Nest and some of the things that work with it.
Every bird takes flight from a Nest
The first Nest Thermostat was released just before the 2011 Holiday Season. Over the next couple years, there was a huge boom in the number of smart thermostats that hit the market. Nest was a relatively small name among names like Honeywell, but they persevered. The 2nd generation Nest Learning Thermostat in 2012 really started to give them momentum. When most smart thermostats ran on batteries or required 3 wire / 24 volt systems for continuous power, Nest found a way to work on some 2 wire heating systems, which was pretty unusual.
Fast forward a year and Google purchased them in early 2014. Within 6 months of that, Works with Nest was born and gave Canadians a new perspective on the idea of an integrated smart home. Where most companies were working through a third party, or from their own products communicating while connected to a master hub, Works with Nest was a way for different, very unrelated products to come together and work in harmony. What did wearables and a thermostat have in common? Nest was bound to show us what this entailed.
What Nest products are out there right now?
The entire lifeblood of Works with Nest starts and ends, really, with the Learning Thermostat. Now in its 4th generation, the Learning Thermostat has branched out into a few different options based on price and features. Rather than explaining it here, please click here to access a review of the most recent models. One new product Nest just released to help support the Thermostat is the Nest Temperature Sensor. This little button-shaped gizmo can sit in different rooms of your house and interact with your thermostat to help communicate the temperatures of different rooms of the house affected by your furnace. It can be customized and programmed directly through the Nest App.
Aside from the Learning Thermostat and sensor, there are other first party Nest Products that you can bring into your home to connect and work in conjunction with the thermostat. There is the Nest Protect Smoke Alarm. This Smoke Alarm comes in a couple of different options (wired and wireless/battery) and has working functions with other products outside of the Nest family (more on that later.)
Then there is the Nest Cam. Formerly known as the Dropcam, Nest Cam is an indoor camera that aims to capture motion in its guarding area. It can also work directly with the Nest Protect so that if it senses smoke or fire, the camera will immediately begin to record inside the home in case something has happened and you may need the video for any purpose.
For outside your home, Nest has 2 products as well. The Nest Hello Doorbell Camera functions both as your new doorbell and a video camera, and the outdoor IQ Camera provides an extra measure of security around your premises in crystal clear 1080p.
Of course Google Home Works with Nest
It should really come as no surprise that Google Home Works with Nest. This one might be a technicality since Google owns Nest, so you can’t really consider it a usual Works with Nest partner. Still, you can use your Google Home to submit voice commands to your Nest products. For example, you can ask your thermostat to power on, off, or go to a specific temperature.
Smart Lighting Works with Nest
One of the most comprehensive Works with Nest partnerships is the one they have with Philips Hue smart lighting. The Hue line of lights work with just about every Nest product in some way. With the thermostat’s ability to sense when you’re away, it can also communicate with Hue smart bulbs to shut off if you left them on. Hue can set itself into warning lighting and warning mode if your Nest Protect activates for any reason, and lastly, the Nest Cam can help control security-based settings for your Hue lights based on where you are in the house or when you go away. Hue isn’t the only thing in your living room that will work with Nest though.
What is there for my living room that works with Nest?
There are a handful of things that work smoothly with Nest products that you may already have around your Living Room. For example, certain Belkin WeMo plugs work with Nest. You can use the WeMo App to control your Nest Thermostat, or you can make it so that things plugged into the WeMo Switch turn off when Nest senses you’re away.
If you’re feeling particularly lazy (or are curled up in blankets on the couch as a Homer Simpson-esque Cinnamon Bun,) your Logitech Harmony Remote works with Nest. Through your remote, you can control your Nest Learning Thermostat, along with setting one button functionalities to control the thermostat.
Home Security that Works with Nest
Chamberlain and August are two product lines I’ve had the pleasure of covering here on a few occasions, and both bring things to the table that Work with Nest. The Chamberlain MyQ can partner with both the Nest Cam and Learning Thermostat. You have the ability to fully control your thermostat from the MyQ App, and if you have a Nest Cam in or near your garage, you can use the MyQ App to access it too.
August’s products work with the Nest Cam too. Within the August App, if you have a smart lock, you can enable away mode or temperature settings with the thermostat and can use the Nest Cam and Doorbell Cam to capture multiple angle videos of people ringing the front doorbell and entering your home.
I’ve also spoken about Yale’s smart products before, though I did not get to review the Nest x Yale setup (Shelly did though, and you can read about it here). The Nest x Yale Lock works in the Nest App and helps you enable away settings for when you are up and about. There’s no direct functionality with any other Nest products just yet, though I’d say it’s only a matter of time.
Things that Work with Nest that you wouldn’t expect
A funny thing happens when you work with Nest long enough—you begin to see some really unexpected partners pop up. Did you know that the Ooma VOIP phone works with Nest? You wouldn’t really expect a phone to work with smart home products, but it does! Ooma interacts with your Nest Protect so that if it triggers, you get a phone call with the option to call 911. That’s pretty neat isn’t it?
If you were one of the buyers that took a chance with the unusual Securifi Almond Router when it came out a couple years ago, it works with Nest too. Almond, as you may recall, was the router with the built in touch screen. As a result, it allows you to control all of the indoor products on it through its connected home hub.
The Jawbone Up was a fairly popular wearable a couple years back. Unfortunately, the Jawbone company is no longer in existence, and you can’t buy their Up wearable any longer. As the wristband’s app service itself begins the final transitions to whatever support it will have going forward, it will likely take with it one of the cooler Works with Nest 
functions that existed. Jawbone products not only tracked your steps, but they tracked your sleep as well. As a result, Jawbone and Nest were able to communicate when you were asleep and awake in order to control your thermostat’s on/off features to ensure that Nest was only heating (or cooling) your home adequately while you were in it and/or awake.
Nest currently DOES work with Fitbits, but I haven’t been able to see if similar functionality exists, or if (for the time being anyway) you can only use it to control the thermostat’s live settings.
Finally, there’s probably the most unusual partnership, and that’s with Mercedes Benz. Yes, Mercedes works with Nest too! Certain Mercedes vehicles (with the right drive kit extras) can connect remotely to your Nest Learning Thermostat. Through the idea of geofencing, your thermostat receives word on how far you are away from the house to ensure that it’s cool (or warm) when you arrive at home.
That’s an updated look at some of the things that work with Nest. Are you a Nest user? What do you have around your house that Works with Nest? Tell us in the comments below.
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