The Nest Thermostat is the first smart thermostat with Matter support

By Jon Bitner April 19, 2023

The catalog of smart home products that support Matter has been steadily growing over the past few months, but the latest addition to its roster might be the most enticing yet. As of April 18, you can now use the Nest Thermostat with Matter.

Only the standard Nest Thermostat (2020) supports Matter — with both the Nest Learning Thermostat and Nest Thermostat E left out of the fun. A Google spokesperson told Digital Trends the company is “still exploring the possibility of Matter compatibility with [the] Nest Learning Thermostat and [is] currently hoping to make it available in the coming year.”

A person controlling the Nest Thermostat.

The Nest Thermostat (2020) is now the first smart thermostat to support Matter, and there’s a good chance the floodgates have been opened and more products will follow in its footsteps.

Support for Matter will be added to the Nest Thermostat through an automatic, over-the-air update. Google is launching the feature in waves over the next few weeks, so if you don’t yet have the feature, be sure to check back frequently throughout the rest of April.

Once your device has been updated, you’ll be able to control your smart thermostat from any Matter-certified smart home platform. Most excitingly, this includes Apple HomeKit — and since HomeKit doesn’t have the most robust selection of smart thermostats, this is bound to be great news for homes running Apple’s platform.

The Nest Thermostat is the latest Google product to gain Matter support, joining the ranks of several smart displays and smart speakers like the Nest Hub Max and Nest Audio. It’s great to see Google so heavily invested in Matter, especially when some other companies are starting to back away from the interoperability platform.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Jon Bitner is a freelance journalist whose gaming addiction began with the SEGA Genesis. His work has been published on…

Smart Home

GE Lighting launches colorful, customizable rope lights with a built-in microphone

The Dynamic Effects Neon-Shape Smart Lights glowing purple.

After debuting at CES 2023, the Dynamic Effects Neon-Shape Smart Lights from GE Lighting are now available for purchase. These highly customizable lights can be controlled using the Cync smartphone app, but also use a built-in microphone to adjust their performance in real time based on the audio of their surroundings.

The Dynamic Effects Neon-Shape Smart Lights actively listen to your home to detect sounds coming from nearby music, video games, or other activities to provide an immersive lighting experience. It’s a nifty feature -- and one that should help set it apart from the competition. You’ll also be able to use the built-in microphone to issue voice commands, and you can control the lights with Amazon Alexa or Google Home.

Smart Home

Google Home adds support for garage door controls

Google Home icon on home screen.

Google Home gives you access to a wide variety of smart home devices, and garage doors have now joined the party. Support for smart garage controllers is rolling out to select users -- although it only appears to be available to folks previewing the new Google Home app and does not yet have an official release date.

Still, seeing the product category added to any version of Google Home is great news for smart home enthusiasts. Google Home is one of the most widely used smart home platforms on the market, and as smart garages continue to gain traction, it’s nice to see their inclusion in the app (even if they’re still not as popular as smart thermostats or video doorbells).

Smart Home

Your Google smart home devices just got a lot less talkative

A person standing in a living room while looking at a Google device.

Smart assistants are an indispensable part of any smart home, making it easy to give hands-free commands and control a variety of gadgets. Google is looking to further streamline the performance of its smart assistant, with the expansion of chime alerts to cut down on how talkative your Google Nest gadgets are when responding to instructions.

For example, after asking Google to turn on a fan, you’ll now be able to hear a quick chime to confirm the assistant has heard your instructions. Previously, confirmation would come in the form of a short sentence, such as “OK, turning on your fan.”