Works With Nest program to be shut down
While Google is rebranding its Home smart speakers under its Nest name, the company is also shutting down another Nest-related endeavor. As part of the Google I/O 2019 conference, the company stated it will discontinue its Works with Nest program.
Google launched Works with Nest in 2014 Google as a developer program. It allowed third-party apps and hardware devices to connect to its Nest products, including its smart thermostats, cameras and more. For example, a fitness tracker could communicate with a Nest thermostat to raise the temperature in your home when you wake up in the morning.
However, as first reported by Variety, the program will be closed later this summer in favor of a new effort called Works with Google Assistant. A follow-up article on Engadget indicates that Works with Nest program will close on August 31.
Google vice president Rishi Chandra told Variety the Works with Google Assistant program will be more restrictive than Works with Nest, to offer more privacy and security for customers. He stated that those customers should be clear on how products that link with Nest devices collect and share data. The new Google Assistant program will only be used by a very small number of third-party products, and Google plans to extensively screen the companies that will share data with its devices.
One big consequence of the shutdown of Works for Nest is that products that use the IF This Then That (IFTTT) automation protocol to link with Nest products will no longer work. Once again, this is due to security concerns with using IFTTT. In March, Google announced it was shutting down many IFTTT functions in Gmail for those same reasons.
from Android Authority http://bit.ly/2DWuSMP
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