I’ve been exploring life with the Google Assistant and comparing it against the Amazon Alexa AI. We have many products in our integrated with Alexa, and only a few devices integrated with Google Assistant. While I’ll admit that the Assistant is smarter, it doesn’t integrate with as much as I want.
I have been pretty curious about the Nest Protect. I wouldn’t mind a smarter smoke and carbon monoxide detector rolled into smart device. It’s a Google product. When we paint the interior and replace our existing lighting with recessed lights, the walls and ceiling will be cleaner with fewer devices.
I picked up a wired Nest Protect from Lowe’s over the weekend as a test subject. I would replace one of the wired smoke detectors on the first floor near the kitchen. The kitchen should see more activity. This should be interesting.
I removed one detector, and was surprised that it was battery operated. Weird. I removed the detector next to it, and yes, it was wired. There was a black (hot), white (neutral), and a red (connects to ADT alarm system.) Hmmm.
I installed the Protect somewhat easily enough, with some minor hiccups. Got it on the wireless, set up the Nest app.
And that’s it. It was very anticlimactic. I did trip the alarm system because now ADT could not reach the 1st level smoke detector.
Here’s the rest of the bad:
- Annoying but I can live with it – It won’t integrate with your existing home alarm system. I spoke to ADT, and they helped me disable the current alarm, but I will need someone to come out to reprogram the loss of a dumb detector.
- More infuriating – The Nest Protect does not integrate with Google Assistant. Say what? Some Nest products do, like the thermostat or some cameras, but not others. Why wouldn’t Google integrate their smart home products to work together?
The Protect is doing its job, but without integration with the Assistant, and no strong interesting benefits, I’m not sure replacing your existing smoke & CO detractors at $110 a piece is worth the cost.