If you search for “Nest Protect” – the smart smoke and CO alarm – you’ll be greeted with Google’s logo and the words “Google Nest”. It’s clearly a Google smart home product:

So logic would dictate that you can manage Nest Protect in your Google Home app, right? Well, for over half a decade, this wasn’t possible at all. You had to run two different apps – the Nest app for the Nest Protect, then the Google Home app for some other Nest and Google products. But on 11th August 2020, version 2.26.1.8 of the Google Home app was released that had the ability for Nest Protect to be managed within Google Home.
For 6 years it wasn’t possible to add or manage Nest Protect from the Google Home app, but on 11th August 2020, this ability was finally added. Existing Nest Protect devices will be auto-added to Google Home after this date.
What is Nest Protect?
Nest Protect is a smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) detector and alarm, with smart functionality. This brings a few benefits of traditional detectors:
- This is an all-in-one unit, unlike most detectors which either offer smoke detection or CO detection – not both.
- You’ll get notified of sensor failures, therefore knowing that you’ll need to contact Nest support to get a new device.
- You’ll be notified of detected smoke or CO when you’re not home. This is great for detecting intermittent issues like a CO boiler leak or an electrical device which is starting to fail and sometimes emitting smoke. With traditional detectors, if you aren’t around to hear the alarm, tough: you wouldn’t know there’s any issue.
There are both battery and hard-wired options for you to chose from, and the battery version notifies you (via the Nest app) when the battery is running low.
Nest Protect was first released in October 2013, with the 2nd generation model coming out three years later in July 2015. It currently retails for $119 for the cheaper wired version, although the price has dropped to $84 during Black Friday events.
What’s the link between Nest and Google?
Nest Labs was founded in 2010 by two former Apple engineers, launching their flagship Nest Learning thermostat in 2011. Whilst I’m not personally a fan of smart thermostats, its success is undeniable and it’s one of the first devices which got the mainstream public really thinking about ‘the smart home’.
The company quickly expanded to around 135 employees in 2012, and releasing a range of products – including the Nest Protect detector – in 2012 and 2013.
Nest Labs purchased Dropcam, a WiFi security camera company, in 2014. This meant that Nest offered smart thermostats, cameras, smoke/CO sensors, alarm systems and more.
It’s therefore little surprise that, owing to Nest’s commercial success, Google swept in and purchased Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in 2014. And this is the link between the two companies, even though Nest continued to operate as a separate company from Google between 2014 and 2018.
Killing Nest
Google started building hardware devices (such as the Pixel phones) from 2016 onwards, signalling a push to get into producing and selling more physical devices. As a result of this, in 2019’s Google I/O conference, it was announced that Nest would be folded in to Google’s operations – basically saying that Nest would no longer be a standalone company. In other words, “Google Nest” was born.
This change was fairly controversial, however, because Nest had a really open software API called ‘works with Nest API’ which meant that other programmers could integrate with Nest products fairly easily. Google shut this API down from August 2019 onwards, however, triggering a backlash because many people had purchased their Nest devices because of its openness and ease of integration.
Google therefore issued a statement on their blog explaining the decision more, but essentially boiling down to “yes we’re killing off this openness, but features will eventually be moved to Google“:
The decision to retire WWN [Works with Nest] was made to unify our efforts around third-party connected home devices under a single platform.
Google Blog, 16th May 2019
Moving forward, we’ll deliver a single consumer and developer experience through the Google Assistant.
We know we can’t build a one-size-fits-all solution, so we’re moving quickly to work with our most popular developers to create and support helpful interactions that give you the best of Google Nest
Google essentially tried to calm Nest customer’s anger by saying that yes, things will be moving to Google (and we won’t shut down the Nest API whilst we do this) but don’t worry, we’re working with other “popular developers” to provide integration to further improve your experience.
How well has this plan – published almost a year ago – worked out? Let’s do a 2 minute Google search to find out:
- I can’t see my nest protect in Google home – 9/11/2019
- Why doesn’t Nest Protect work with Amazon Alexa? It would be great for emergency warnings – 9/11/2019
- Can Nest Protect work with (send alarm messages to) Google Home speakers? – 10/9/2019
- BETTER GOOGLE AND NEST INTEGRATION!!! – 11/17/19
- How can I get my Nest Protect to call me when an event happens? – 9/16/19
- Cannot connect Nest with Hue – 11/4/19
- Migrated Nest to Google Account but Nest Protects did not move – 10/4/19
- Nest Protect integration with anything?!?! – 9/1/19
- How do you add Nest Protect to Google Home app – 9/3/19
- Nest protect and google home – 1/6/20
- Can I add my Nest Protect to my Google Home app yet? – February 2020
- Nest Protect – why not under Google Home after migration? – September 2019
- Nest -> Google Home — Does/Will Google Home have an open API? – July 2019
- Nest products migrating to Google Assistant – July 2019
- Cannot link Nest Protect to Google Home – March 2019
And the official answer to all these questions and feedback? “It’s not currently possible“.
Right, so Google’s clearly communicated plan hasn’t worked well, at all! “Popular developers” have not provided any new external integration for Nest Protect, and it’s still not available in the Google Home app either.
This is quite poor, but at least you can still manage Nest Protect in the Nest app. The downside, of course, is that some Nest products need to be managed in the Google Home app, whilst others still require the Nest app – meaning you need two mobile apps for the same company!
Managing Nest Protect right now
To sum up, between 2014 and most of 2020, the Google Home app didn’t support your Nest Protect devices. If you have migrated your Nest account to Google, it still wouldn’t appear in the new app: you’d still have to use the old Nest app to manage Nest Protect.
But on 11th August 2020, version 2.26.1.8 of the Google Home app was released which started supporting Nest Protect natively:

This is a nice step forward and some welcome integration from Google, although some concerns have been noted:
- The room or nickname of the Nest Protect device isn’t shown, so it’s hard to know which device is which.
- You also can’t differentiate between battery powered and wired-in Nest Protect devices.
Hopefully this will be added in due course, however.
In terms of other Nest Protect integrations, Alexa still doesn’t support Nest Protect either, despite hints in 2019 that this was being worked on. According to Google’s own support pages, only the Nest cameras/doorbell and thermostat work with Alexa right now.
So what third party integrations do work with Nest Protect? As far as we can tell, none. Previous integrations with products like SmartThings, IFTTT and Home Assistant worked with the open Nest API, which is now closed to new developers. If your previous Nest developers account is still open then you can use that, however.
The only products that work with Nest Protect are therefore other Nest products, as outlined on another Google support page:
- Google Nest thermostats can display an alert, and shut off forced air systems (with smoke emergencies) and traditional heating systems (with CO emergencies).
- Google Nest cameras will start turning on and stream the video capture to your Nest or Google Home app, assuming that emergency clip recording is enabled under “Protect -> Settings -> Works with Protect” (it’s off by default).
- Other Nest products will also sound the emergency alarm if they support this.
Hi Tristan
I am running latest version of Google Home and Nest App. i have just purchased 2 x Nest protect (2nd Gen) and they are working fine only on the Nest app. however i am unable to link them to my Google home app?? been informed by support this is not possible however what the point of manufacturing Google nest protect products which is not compatible with the google home app i thought the whole concept and ethos of purchasing Google home is having multiple devices in one app ??. (its not as if its a competitors product its actually google / Nest manufactured???
Hi Paul,
Sorry to hear it, that’s frustrating! To be honest, I thought that support was added in 2020 – I know a few people who have been able to add Nest Protect to the Google Home app since then.
Maybe it varies per country or something? But I agree, it’s really frustrating that Google own and manufacture these products but don’t always support them properly (or at all) in the future.
Its not showing up in my Google home app either, and I have the latest version… the nest protect integrates with the thermostats and cameras. Really need this in the home app.
8-28-21 Same problem here, I am a Nest customer (Thermostat, Camera, Protect, but when the Nest app persisted that I migrate to Google and their “Google Home” app, I did. Everything just worked, except the 2 Nest Protect smoke detectors. I tried everything, eventually called Google support just now. He admitted that Nest Protects are NOT supported in Google Home “for now” (I’m in the USA).
He said to use the Nest app, no need for Google home, but that I am now logged into the Nest app using my Google Gmail account (not the Nest account). Seems to be working fine.
Hey Tristan, thanks for the heads up on the nest protect intégration issue with Google home. Being a Canadian user, still disappointed that we need to use two apps. Hopefully soon this issue will be resolved.
Thanks RevCo, glad to hear the heads up was useful. Google’s integration has been really slow – I hope it speeds up, especially for non-Americans like you and I!
Lol so we don’t know if the protects will work in the google home app? Or if we do get it to work we don’t know the names of the protects or wether or not they are wired. Was thinking of migrating but maybe I’ll just keep everything in the Nest app until there is clarification and everything works.
That pretty much sums it up, unfortunately. Google have a history of being bad with migrating products, or fully supporting ‘old’ products on a new platform.
Hi Tristan. Thanks for the article. But Nest Protects are still not working in Google home App (Dec 25th, 2021). Latest version here. I have several Nest Protects some wired and some on battery. All fine in Nest App, but not showing up in Google home. And when trying to add them in Google home using “supported by Google” I am asked for a Nest account/password, which I do not of course have since I registered my Protects and logged in using my Google account. Which makes this whole mess, even more messy. Don’t even want to try register a Nest account, don’t even know if i can at this point, risking having to set up all my Nest protects all over again, causing a big mess with my devices being registered on my Google account.
This whole mess makes me think twice about opening my just purchased Nest Doorbell (wired).
December 25th, 2021,
Ole,
Tromsø – Norway
Hi Ole,
Thanks for the comment, and sorry to hear you’re still having trouble with your Nest Protect in the Google Home app. I know of people who are able to use their Protect in the Google Home app, but it definitely sounds like a buggy process – and maybe different countries have differing support. I’ll try and find out more information and update this article if I find out more about which countries/versions (etc) are and aren’t supported.
Thanks,
Tristan
I too am having the same exact issues. I an see them in the nest app but want to see them in the google home
I have the Google Nest protect smoke detector but when i try to connect Nest to Google Home app it asks me to login with an Nest account but i only have an Nest account signed with Google because there is no other way to sign up to Google Nest which leads to no possibility to connect them together?
(It is working in the same home as Google Home but in the Nest app
Where did you find them in “supported by google”? I tried typing in “nest”, “protect” and “google” and didn’t even find any of them listed protects as an option. Just got mine today (Jan. 7, 2022) and used my Google account to set it up since I already have other Google products (Wi-Fi, cameras and doorbell).
After dropping $500 on smoke alarms I have to chop my way through this incredibly incompetent hack more or less linking various ill-thought out apps. What a bunch of neanderthals!
LOL! I don’t disagree, to be honest. Google don’t tend to ‘play nice’ – even with their own products and integrations, unfortunately.
This is made all the worse by the announcement that Nest DropCams will not be supported by Google Home OR the Nest App as of April 8th, 2024. So you HAVE to get new cameras (they do offer a 50% discount to existing DropCam users) and if they are Google/Nest cams they will only be supported by Google Home – thus you are forced to use 2 apps where previously the Nest App covered cams and protects.
Its bad enough that I can not use my G-suite email, that I use only for a custom domain, with Google Home and that Google Home does not integrate with HomeKit, but now this.
Clearly when Google officially removed “don’t be evil” from their official code of conduct in 2018, they meant it.
I agree with your frustrations John – Google seem to be particularly bad at doing… well, exactly this. It’s not the first time they have dropped support and messed everyone around, and it sadly won’t be the latest. Hopefully they improve in the future, but Killed By Google would suggest that this is purely their MO (sadly).