Google Home to Use Nest Speakers as Alternative to Sense Owner's Presence

Urian B., Tech Times 23 September 2022, 11:09 pm

Google Home will be ditching the need to rely solely on different smart home devices like the thermostat in order to sense the presence of people. With a new upgrade to its sensing feature, the Home's optional presence sensing feature works with the Nest speakers and smart displays.

Better Detection Could Help Upgrade the Automated Systems in Place

While Google Home is already well known for automating most things that need to be done at home, detection systems could help make things much easier for homeowners. With the help of better detection, users could simply go home and Google Home would automatically take care of certain tasks.

Although Google Home could be connected to sensors in the past, it was not yet that efficient for users and still required either more input or more devices in order for the system to sense the users' presence.

Google Home to Use Nest Speakers and Smart Displays for Activity Detection to Carry Out Automated Actions

According to the story by Engadget, Google Home will be able to use the Nest speaker and smart displays in order for any activity to be detected. Once any activity is detected, Home will be able to carry out the different automation actions.

Examples of this are users talking directly to their Nest Audio or clicking on the Nest Hub. Once users do this, Google might know immediately that it should also turn on the lights.

Second-Gen Nest Hubs Already Use the Soli Radar Sensor to Detect Activity Nearby

The reason why this works is that second-gen Nest Hubs are actually using the Soli radar sensor in order to detect when activity is nearby. Users can easily enable the presence sensing abilities on the Google Home app for Android and iOS.

In order for users to enable the presence sensing abilities, they will have to go to the app, visit the Features section located inside the settings, and opt-in to the detection option. Google also highlights that ambient noise will also not trigger any presence cues.

Previous Detection Methods for Google Home Systems Included Multiple Devices

Cameras, the Nest Hub Max, and doorbells will not switch devices between the away and home modes. The new expansion will make presence detection much more useful for those that have integrated smart homes.

Before the new feature, users still had to have Nest Guard, Nest Protect, Nest Thermostate, or even the Next x Yale smart lock to work with their phone's location in order for their smart home to receive news that they have arrived.

As per Engadget, with the addition of speakers and display as a way to detect when users are home, this could make the detection system more reliable, especially when it comes to unusual scenarios.

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Written by Urian B.