Almost a decade after Google last updated its flagship thermostat, the company has announced the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen). The thermostat has an all-new design, several new features, and support for the smart home standard Matter. So, yes, it now works natively with Apple Home.
At $279.99, the fourth generation of the Nest Learning Thermostat is more expensive than the third-gen Nest, which launched in 2015. However, it now comes with a new Nest Temperature Sensor (2nd gen) to monitor temperature in other rooms. Both are available for preorder now and will ship on August 20th in the US and Canada only.
Surprisingly, Google didn’t follow competitor Ecobee by packing more function into its flagship thermostat. This isn’t a smart speaker, a smart display, or a smart home hub. Instead, the focus is on making this a smart thermostat.
Google says the new model uses AI to learn you’re heating and cooling schedule faster and more accurately — alongside other upgrades to help manage your system more efficiently.
Google added its Soli radar sensor to the device to provide more accurate inputs about your presence, plus support for Matter, the new smart home standard. This means that, among other benefits, the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) can now work natively in Apple Home. (The Nest Thermostat from 2020 already works with Matter.)
However, Matter support is over Wi-Fi there’s no Thread radio surprising, considering the original Nest is the reason Thread was developed.
But as Google Home’s head of product, Anish Kattukaran, tells me, Google wants users to have other devices in their homes to act as Thread hubs such as the new Google TV Streamer 4K which is a Google Home hub, Matter controller, and Thread border router. The Nest Thermostat is meant to focus on its main job: keeping you comfortable while saving you energy.
Boykin Air 