Skip to main content

Get a more holistic view of your home with Notion sensors and Nest

notion second generation neststat product lifestyle 5
Image used with permission by copyright holder
You don’t have eyes in the back of your head — but you can have Notion sensors. First introduced in 2014 by way of a successful Kickstarter campaign, the Notion awareness sensors are innocuous little discs with big responsibilities — alerting users to anything out of the ordinary in their home, whether it’s a water leak, a temperature change, a door opening, or a smoke alarm sounding. And now, three years later, Notion is launching its second-generation sensors that integrate with Nest for an even more holistic home experience.

Thanks to this new collaboration, not only will you be able to control your Nest thermostat or view its humidity readings from within the Notion app, but you’ll also be able to leverage Notion’s smarts to help you save energy (and therefore, money). For example, if a Notion sensor senses that you’ve left a window open while the AC or heat is running, it will prompt you to adjust your Nest thermostat accordingly. Moreover, thanks to the Nest integration, Notion users will be able to keep tabs on a whole home’s average temperature, calculating temperatures across room thanks to a combination of Notion sensors and the Nest thermostat.

“Our reason for integrating with Nest is to close the loop between the purposeful information that Notion provides and Nest’s intelligences that enable homeowners to take real-time action no matter where they are,” says Brett Jurgens, co-founder and CEO of Notion. “This is only the beginning for what’s to come on the integrations front, and we’re excited to explore how Notion can work with Nest’s other best-in-class products that empower homeowners to build a smarter, safer home.”

On top of Notion’s new Nest integration, the sensor is also said to have improved battery life, range, and durability with its second-generation launch. In fact, the company claims that these new sensors will have a 12-to-18-month battery life on average, and a 50-percent increase in range thanks to a better sensor-to-bridge communication. And while you probably don’t want your sensors to ever be fully submerged, the new Notion can withstand up to three feet of water for up to 30 minutes.

The new Notions are now available for purchase on the company’s website. Be warned, however, that for now, the sensors’ integrations with Nest are only available on iOS.

Editors' Recommendations

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
This South Korean smart home hack is one more reason you should secure your home
Alexa listening indicator.

While most Americans were trying to take advantage of Black Friday sales last weekend, hackers in South Korea pulled off what is perhaps the most damaging hack in smart home history. The as-yet-unidentified hackers recorded photo and video from more than 700 different apartment complexes and held it ransom or sold it outright for Bitcoin.

The entire incident is the stuff of nightmares -- the realization of fears about the smart home industry and what it means to allow cameras and other recording devices into the home without sufficient safeguards in place.

Read more
How to check smart thermostat compatibility in your home
how to install a smart thermostat ecobee 4 wiring

You're about to take the plunge on a smart thermostat, but you want to make sure your home is ready for it. Typically this involves finding a c-wire to keep the smart thermostat powered constantly, but there are other factors to line up. Let's dig into what you need to know.
How do I know if my smart thermostat is compatible?

Smart thermostats have a lot going on inside, and figuring out compatibility can be a bit of work. A recurring theme among every smart thermostat is the need for a common wire, or c-wire. This wire provides an ongoing power supply to your smart thermostat so it can run in the background constantly. The always-on nature of smart thermostats is what allows them to learn when people are home and when to automatically make temperature adjustments.

Read more
Third-gen Oura Ring gets more temperature sensors, updated heart rate monitor
Oura Ring colors.

The Oura Ring is about to enter its third generation, with the latest model bringing with it a suite of new features and a new sensor array, all wrapped up inside the same familiar but incredibly svelte design as before. Oura has not changed the physical size or weight of the third-generation Ring over the second generation, but the big technical change is a revised sensor array, which includes more temperature sensors and a new heart rate sensor.

There are seven temperature sensors in all, which will monitor your body temperature throughout the day and night, providing insight into your health. The heart rate sensor now uses red and green LEDs compared to the infrared sensor on the second-generation Oura Ring. This enables all-day monitoring, and in the future, it will work for workout tracking, too.

Read more