Palo Alto, Calif. – Nest enlisted five new companies to participate in its Works With Nest home-automation program and acquired startup home-automation supplier Revolv.
Revolv will no longer market its home-automation hub direct to consumers or through retailers. Its hub has been available at Revolv.com, Amazon, Smarthome.com, HomeDepot.com, and select Home Depot stores. Revolv also recently set up a reseller program for custom integrators.
Nest said it bought Revolv because its “experience connecting devices around the home will help us continue to grow Works with Nest and bring the conscious home to life.”
For its part, Revolv said it would work with Nest “to create some amazing products and continue to unify the connected home as part of the Works with Nest program.”
For existing customers, Revolv’s service for its home-automation hub will continue to be available, and Revolv will continue to offer customer support, but the company will not make its hub available to new customers.
Revolv’s technology could play a role in Nest’s introduction of a wireless mesh-network standard defined by the Nest-led Thread Group for use in DIY home-automation systems. The network-communications-level standard leaves it up to individual suppliers to implement their own applications layer, or command protocols, to carry out commands, over the 2.4GHz network.
Revolv’s hub was already compatible with Nest’s smart thermostat and CO/smoke detector.
In expanding the selection of products compatible with its thermostat and smoke/CO detector, Nest said products from five more companies are now compatible. One is the Ivee voice-activated home assistant, which lets users when a Nest “energy rush hour” is about to start or finish. The Life360 family app lets the Nest thermostat know when everyone has left the house for the day so households don’t waste energy heating an empty home. With the Pebble smart watch, users can change the temperature and set their Nest thermostat to Home or Away settings from their wrist. The Rachio sprinkler-system controller turns on sprinklers if the Nest smoke/CO detector senses smoke. And with SNUPI Technologies’ WallyHome wireless-sensor system for your home, a Nest thermostat knows not to heat or cool an unused room.
In September, Nest announced that installed home-automation systems from Control4, Crestron, Remote Technologies Incorporated, (RTI) and Universal Remote Control (URC) connect with Nest products, as does Dropcam’s security camera. Dropcam was renectly purchased by Nest.
Nest’s products also connect to products from Whirlpool, Jawbone and LIFX under the Works With Nest program.
Nest’s products and the Dropcam are available from major distributors including AVAD, The Catalyst Group, and Power House Alliance.
