Hot on the heels of its $555 million acquisition of Dropcam, Nest is announcing plans to work with a variety of products, including LIFX light bulbs, the MyQ garage opener from Chamberlain, Logitech's universal remote, Jawbone and Google's voice controls. The news is an expected expansion of the Nest platform, which had originally planned to open its API at the beginning of this year until it was purchased by Google for $3.2 billion in January.
Along with the news of the developer program, Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers will lead the Thoughtful Things Fund to provide developers an opportunity to "secure the support and visibility necessary for getting projects off the ground." I have no idea what this means in practice, but I assume there will be some small amount of funding coming out of an existing fund from Kleiner and whatever monies Google Ventures has that it will market as available for internet of things products that work with Nest.
(L to R): Matt Rogers, founder and VP Engineering, Nest; Larry Page, CEO, Google; Tony Fadell, CEO, Nest
So let's get to the exciting bits of the developer program. The Nest release offers the following with more to come at Google I/O:
With the Nest application programming interfaces (API), all developers – from global corporations and small companies to startups and tinkerers – can access Home and Away states, smoke and CO alerts, and peak energy rush hour events to build interesting and meaningful integrations while maintaining control of their own user experiences. In all instances, Nest customers must authorize a connection before any data is shared.
What this means in practice looks pretty darn compelling. Starting with Google, this fall customers can use their Android phones (or Google Glass) to speak commands that control their Nests, or use Google Now to have their Nest track their whereabouts and adjust the temperature of their home based on how far away they are (this answers the features Honeywell touted with its Lyric thermostat earlier this month). The program is launching with participation from the following other vendors with suggested implementations:
The links to Nest will rely on OAuth2.0 and will require the customer to approve permissions associated with linking each device to the Nest. Interestingly, Nest won't let developers keep more than 10 trailing days of data associated with the connection.
It's been a long wait for the Nest API, and there are certainly some elements here that are worth digging into. In a podcast published today, I spent time asking Cory Sorise, the head of product integration for connected products at Chamberlain, about the tensions between offering a product and a service. For example, does he view it as a problem that Chamberlain doesn't control the app experience?
He said that the end goal for Chamberlain is to provide what the customer wants; which feels like a dodge, but is also true. Some customers will want to connect to the Chamberlain app, while others will rather link it to their Nest and try to control it there. Others might want to use Siri and Apple's HomeKit (Chamberlain is a HomeKit participant as well). The truth is one person may elect to use all of these depending on where she is and what gadget she has in her hands.
And that's a core truth that developers and consumers will have to realize about the smart home. Openness is the ultimate goal because that will give the user the most flexibility. The trick will be managing the complexity that openness creates via apps and recommendations.
So instead of another smart hub or device, the real opportunity for the smart home is in the artificial intelligence and recommendation engines that will show Nest owners a connected Whirlpool dryer and a rebate program from their utility that could save them money by toggling on a recipe that delays their dryer until the demand for power isn't quite so high.
Right now the focus is on taking away some of the complexity associated with so many standards and radios, but that problem is being solved. The next level of AI and recommendations wrapped in a good UI is where hot startups should be focusing their time.
Maybe Kleiner or Google Ventures will find some cash for that type of thoughtful thing.