Home Assistant

[Update: new users only] Nest to turn off their API

Paulus Schoutsen Comments

Update May 16: Nest just announced in a blog post that they changed their plan. It will still retire the Works with Nest program at the end of August, but it will no longer cut off existing users of the API. It will however still stop accepting new users at the end of August.

Currently each Home Assistant user is required to create their own developer account to configure their Nest integration. We will reach out to Nest to see if we can become a partner so that users joining Home Assistant after August can still use Nest.

Sigh. Another one. This time it’s not a small one either: Nest is disabling their APIs.

We already saw the writing on the wall in January, but now it’s official: Google announced that the Nest API will be turned off at the end of August, 2019. This means that in a little over three months, you will no longer be able to get your own data, that Google has collected in your home, and use it like you see fit.

Screenshot of the Nest developer website. Notice posted on the Nest developer website.

The reason for shutting down the API is that the Nest team is focusing on making “Works with Google Assistant” the most helpful and intelligent ecosystem for the home. However, and this is crucial: the Google Assistant ecosystem is a one way street. You can put data in, but you can never get data out. They acknowledge this in their FAQ:

Screenshot of the FAQ on the Nest developer website. FAQ Nest developer website.

Cherry on the Cake

Google also announced that they are transitioning the Nest ecosystem into the Google world, making you link all your Nest devices to your Google account. How that will work? We’re just going to leave this snippet from this article from the Financial Times here:

Our advice (as always): buy devices that communicate locally.