Google Beefs Up Home With Nest Protect And Expanded Matter Smart Lock Support

Google Home already exists at the core of the smart home experience for so many of us, and little by little it’s only picking up new functionality. One way we’ve seen it expand a few times over the years has been by way of integrating control from other apps — and specifically, Nest stuff. That’s already brought Wi-Fi controls to the Home app, as well as Nest camera feeds, and back in November we spotted evidence that Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors could soon join them.

Today, Google makes that addition official, welcoming Nest Protect to Home as part of the app’s Public Preview. If you’ve got a Nest Protect and sign up for the Home Public Preview, you can start getting smoke and CO alerts, adjust device configuration, and coordinate testing all from the Home app.

In addition to providing this new home for all your Nest Protect needs, Home is also looking to flesh out its support for third-party smart locks — and specifically, those built to take advantage of Matter. Google just reinforced its commitment to working with Matter-certified devices when announcing the Home API preview for devs last week, and now the Home app is adding new functionality for such smart locks, including updating and setting rules for access codes, and configuring options like one-touch locking.

Just like the Nest Protect support, these expanded third-party Matter lock features will require Home Public Preview registration during this initial trial, but we’ll eventually see those both make their way to the main release. Right now, the preview’s only available for Android users, but Google says that iOS support should be on its way sometime early this year.

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