Modern Smart home compatibility - Will Nest Protect ever work with Matter?

[Spike27]

Does anyone know if there will be a Matter-ready Nest Protect (3rd gen?) released in the next 6 months?

Next year I’ll need to replace my “dumb” smoke detectors and need a hard-wired, replacement that works with my smart home setup.

Nest Protect initially looked promising, but it is not compatible with anything outside the old Nest app. I already rely on four ecosystems:  Google Home, Hue, Apple HomeKit and SmartThings, and I’m thinking of consolidating everything in Homey Pro….  but it looks like Protect is not even supported by Google Home.

All over the Internet, I’ve read reviews and customer complaints about poor compatibility and lack of support for Nest Protect. Google’s own product info is severely lacking re. cross-platform integration, Matter support, etc. I came to this official forum to find answers, but all I found was many angry customers and no-one from Google can give them any answers. It’s quite shocking that Google is selling a vital life-saving product with so many problems and no solutions.

It is such a shame because the design and features of the hard-wired Nest Protect are exactly what I need - apart from the lack of compatibility with common smart homes. I want notifications, the ability to shut off the HVAC, and integration with lights to warn deaf residents, etc. etc.

What is the likelihood that there will be a Matter-ready, properly smart-home compatible Nest Protect (3rd gen?) released in 2024/5?

Or, is Google purposefully ensuring it will never be compatible with other smart home products for “safety reasons?”  I know there are a lot of dodgy cheap “smart” products out there that are a security risk, but I thought the Matter standard was supposed to overcome that, so when will Nest protect be Matter Ready? 

[DanCoco · Accepted solution]

It feels like they're never going to release another Protect version. If they can't get this one into Home, there's no way they get it into Matter. It's apparently still supported and sold. I hope they aren't still manufacturing new ones like this. 

It seems like they want to let this device quietly die off.

Given what we have seen from Google in supporting the current Nest Protects, I'm not sure I'd want to risk my money and safety on buying a 3rd gen detector. 

When my first one nears its replacement date, I will research what other alarms would work best. (I think i can add other vendors alarms to google home? Kiddie?) At this point, I'm not even sure I want to use Google Home. 

[Spike27]

Thanks for your reply. In other forums, many are echoing your thoughts. I also get the impression Google want to kill it off (possibly to avoid future litigation risk of life-saving products?). But why do they sell it as a Google branded product, and why does it continue to feature prominently in all the "top smoke detector" lists. It's weird!

I found another long thread where - after TWO YEARS of asking - Google finally replied with this statement: "We can confirm that supporting Nest Protect in Home App is indeed on our roadmap."

It's noice they finally replied but it does not fill me with any confidence, so I will avoid Nest and Google Home products as much as possible.