Google seems to be on a big hack-and-slash spree this year, culling products — even beloved ones — in an attempt to streamline its offerings. The tech giant is known for abandoning or restructuring certain devices, services, and apps that didn’t take off the way it hoped, but 2020 seems to be the year for it. And now Android Police reports that Google will be discontinuing Nest Secure, its $US400 ($564) home security system, by the end of the year.
“Google Nest will no longer be producing Nest Secure, however we will continue to support our security users in all the same ways,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge.
That’s a pretty short-lived run, considering the company launched Nest Secure in 2017. The product itself didn’t seem too bad. Unlike other home security systems that require a technician to install, Nest Secure was easy enough for a user to set up themselves. Similar in size to a smart speaker, it featured a keypad on which users could punch in a predetermined code to arm and disarm the system, key fobs that when touched to the hub could do the same thing, and two door sensors.
But the system itself was limiting. Its motion detector could only sense motion within a 3.05 m radius. If you owned a large house, that detector and the two door sensors weren’t gonna cut it, though users had the option to purchase extra door sensors if they wanted to monitor multiple doors. Higher-end infrared motion detectors, like the kind security companies install, cover areas of the home that are larger than that 3.05 m radius. Privacy concerns could have also been one of the reasons why Nest Secure didn’t catch on. Until Google integrated Nest Secure with Google Assistant in February 2019, users didn’t know the the alarm system’s hub had an always-on microphone. Not great!
Just add Nest Secure to the pile of products that have been killed by Google. By June of next year, the company will completely do away with Hangouts and migrate everyone’s chat history and contacts to Google Chat. Trusted Contacts, an app that lets users share their location with emergency contacts, bites the dust in December, the same month as Google Play Music and Cloud Print are also dying. Google’s Daydream VR headsets and apps are completely dead already, along with a bunch of other gadgets and features you may or may not have even known existed.
If you’re wondering if Google’s other Nest products, like mesh routers, security cameras, and thermostats, are destined to become useless silicon, don’t worry. Google doesn’t have any plans to discontinue those — yet!