Today, at CEDIA EXPO 2014, Nest made the day of every home automator installers and retailers everywhere: Nest finally works with the major players in home automation, Control4, Crestron, Remote Technologies Incorporated (RTI) and Universal Remote Control (URC). These are the pricey advanced home automation systems that, up until now, did not officially support the popular Nest Learning Thermostat.
With this move, consumers with the pricey home automation system can hang a sleek Nest thermostat on the walls of their McMansion, ending the first world problem of using stale HVAC control pads.
The integration comes from Nest’s recently announced “Works with Nest” developer’s program that allows other venders to build Nest support into its products. Along with the Nest integration, Dropcam’s wireless web-based cameras, freshly purchased by Google’s Nest, are also now compatible with the aforementioned companies’ systems.
“We launched the Works with Nest program with consumer brands including Whirlpool, Jawbone and LIFX, forming meaningful connections like appliances that knew not to run when energy prices were high or light bulbs that flashed when your smoke alarm went off,” said Matt Rogers, founder and vice president of engineering at Nest said in a released statement today. “Today, we’re excited to bring Works with Nest to whole-home automation. Professional installers are a key market partner for Nest and we’re committed to enabling our products to connect with the home automation systems they trust and install every day.”
This has been a long time coming, yet the timetable was also to support other platforms after successfully launching the consumer product. The company announced its developer program in 2013, and earlier this year, its first partners with its Works With Nest program.
“Since we launched in 2011, there’s been steady demand from the developer community for Nest to create an API,” said Matt Rogers at last year’s CEDIA EXPO. “While we’ve always wanted to create a Nest Developer Program, our first priority was to build a great product, customer experience and team. We’ve defined what the Nest experience should be. And now we’re getting ready to open our doors.”
And the doors are now wide open.