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Nine years have passed since Google introduced the third-generation Nest Learning Thermostat, but the wait for the fourth-generation model is finally over. Today, the company unveiled its latest smart thermostat. It arrives on the same day as a next-gen version of Google's iconic Chromecast streaming dongle—now called the Google TV Streamer.
Both devices have a bit of artificial intelligence spruced in—Google Assistant is getting some assistance from the company's Gemini large language model—along with long-awaited hardware improvements and elegant designs that better blend the tech into your home. They arrive just a week before the Made by Google event on August 13, where the company is expected to announce new Pixel phones, smartwatches, and earbuds.
Fresh Streaming
Google has sold more than 100 million Chromecasts since 2013. Anish Kattukaran, head of product at Google Home and Nest, says that while the dongle served the need of the previous generation of streaming fans, the new Google TV Streamer is future-facing. Instead of a small dongle hiding behind your screen, it's a slim elongated oval device designed to rest on a media console. It comes in two colors, porcelain and hazel, though the latter is a Google Store exclusive.
On the back of the Streamer are several ports where you can connect cables for Ethernet, HDMI 2.1, and USB-C for power. A gentle curve on the back of the device blocks any wires from sight. There's also a button that, once pressed, makes an audible ping on the remote to help you find it. (It's probably between the couch cushions.) The remote looks similar to the one included with the previous generation Chromecast With Google TV, but slightly longer. Some buttons have moved to be more ergonomic; volume, for example, is now on the front rather than the edge of the remote. Also new is a customizable button that can open your favorite app or Google's Home Panel.
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The Home Panel is new to Google TV but first launched on last year's Pixel Tablet (and subsequently is now available on many Android phones). This shortcut opens your “Favorited” smart home devices in one quickly accessible menu. Launching it on the Google TV Streamer means you can pause your movie night to see who's at the front door, see multiple security camera streams, turn off the living room lights, or set the thermostat—all through the remote and TV interface, so you don't need to hunt for your phone to interact with your smart home. Speaking of, since the Google TV Streamer also has a Thread border router with Matter support, you can use it as a hub for smart home devices that require one. (This is partly why Google wants it to rest on your media console instead of shoved into a cabinet, for better connectivity.)
Arguably the most important upgrade to the streamer is performance, a common complaint with the Google TV operating system. Compared to the prior model, Google says the new TV Streamer has a 22 percent faster CPU performance, more RAM, and four times the storage, up to 32 GB. That should make it much more responsive overall. It supports 4K at 60 frames per second, Dolby Vision and Atmos, HDR10, and HDR10+. There's also support for spatial audio if you use compatible audio devices. Despite Google's desire for this device to be future-facing, it still only supports Wi-Fi 5 rather than the newer Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 standards.
The Google TV Streamer costs $100 and is available for preorder now. It goes on sale September 24. The company says it will continue selling the Chromecast With Google TV model until stock runs out, but that it has no plans to replenish that model.
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Google TV is getting a software upgrade as well, though these updates apply to every TV and device that currently runs the operating system. It's getting a Gemini infusion, with the company's large language model powering “overviews” on movies and shows. These text blurbs offer aggregated details from the web when you select a film, like the synopsis and reviews. A new ambient mode lets you set a generative AI screensaver, and there's the aforementioned Home Panel too.
$100 at Google Store$100 at Amazon
Temperature Check
When the original Nest Thermostat launched, it “challenged the status quo,” Kattukaran says. “It was an iconic design, and now we have to live up to it.” For the 4th-Gen Nest Learning Thermostat, he says the Nest team pulled design inspiration from the Pixel Watch with a lens design that curves toward the edges—a detail in the Pixel Watch's design which, funnily enough, took inspiration from the original Nest Thermostat.
The new thermostat has a 60 percent larger screen than the aging third-gen model, and Google says the team used a subtle mirrored coating and colored film to give it a bezel-less design. It still has the rotating metal dial that you twist to change the temperature; it doesn't provide any haptic feedback as you rotate, but it serves up a satisfying digital clicking sound. It comes in three finishes: silver, obsidian, and polished gold.
Google says this is the first-ever product to use 100 percent recycled cobalt in the battery, a feat Apple wants to achieve in all its products by 2025. The Nest Learning Thermostat also comes in 100 percent plastic-free packaging. The rest of the hardware has 33 percent recycled materials throughout but is “engineered to last,” as Kattukaran says. After all, how often do you replace a thermostat? This latest model has a 12-wire backplate, making it compatible with a wider range of systems, including heat pumps. Google says it's the most compatible smart thermostat it has ever made.
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A thermostat typically sits in a hallway, so there's no need for its screen to be showing detailed information if nobody's there to read it. To make the display more useful, Google has injected the Nest with its Soli radar technology to power a feature called Dynamic Farsight. This lets the thermostat detect when someone approaches it. When no one is near, it'll show a beautiful clock design. As someone walks closer, it'll display an animation showing the weather outside as well as the home's temperature. This ambient awareness also helps power the Nest's Home and Away feature; the Soli technology and your phone's GPS tell the thermostat whether you're home, which helps the device conserve energy when your out of the house by dialing back the settings of your heating or cooling system.
Don't forget the “learning” function of the thermostat—it's designed to learn and adapt to your habits, and Google says it now does this much more quickly. The fourth-gen model has a new feature called Smart Schedule, which can either suggest changes to your cooling and heating schedule or make them automatically. You choose whether to accept or deny its recommendations through notifications you'll receive in the Google Home app.
Another new capability is the thermostat's ability to account for what's happening outside the home. If your home will naturally heat up due to the day's weather, the thermostat will understand that and conserve the energy required to reach your desired indoor temperature. The “Adaptive Eco” mode will save energy when you're not home, but it will also try to get your home to your preferred temperature within an hour of your arrival. And there's Nest Renew support too, which shifts to cleaner energy sources when available from your utility provider (and targets cheaper energy periods).
Each fourth-gen Nest Learning Thermostat will come with a redesigned Nest Temperature Sensor. These wall-mountable devices are seperate from the thermostat and are meant to be installed around the house to give your Nest system a better idea of what the temperatures are throughout your whole living space. You can ask the system to rely on the temperature read by a particular sensor instead of the temperature read by the Nest Learning Thermostat—helpful if you're more concerned that the bedroom is the right temperature than the hallway near the front door where your thermostat lives. The temperature sensor is also available separately for $40 (three for $100) and is backward compatible with older Nest Thermostats. They have replaceable batteries that last three years.
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Finally, the Nest Learning Thermostat has a new System Health Monitor to flag potential maintenance needs by tracking your HVAC system's behavior, such as when your air conditioner suddenly isn't cooling rooms as efficiently as it used to. In addition, a new Smart Ventilation feature checks outdoor air quality before pulling air into your home—especially helpful if the air quality in your area is poor.
The new Nest Learning Thermostat (plus the included sensor) is available for preorder and costs $280. It goes on sale August 20.
$280 at Google Store$280 at Amazon
The Future of Google Assistant
Google has been integrating its Gemini chatbot and large language models into its products and services over the past year, but what does that mean for Google Assistant? The Alexa and Siri competitor has been a mainstay for years but wasn't mentioned once during Google's developer conference in May. You'd think this spelled the end of Google Assistant, and that it'd eventually end up in the Google Graveyard, right? Think again.
Kattukaran says Gemini's large language models will power Google Assistant, allowing it to “redefine the next era of the smart home.” The most immediate change? Google Assistant's voice will sound much more natural and humanlike, with improved pacing and rhythm. It'll offer a more conversational experience and can maintain the context of your conversation as you string together multiple commands and queries.
This Gemini-powered experience will also improve existing features. For example, motion alerts from your security cameras will be much more detailed, allowing you to know exactly what's transpiring without opening the camera feed. You can even ask the Assistant for information from your camera feeds, like whether a FedEx delivery person showed up. Google wants people to ask Assistant to set up home automation, too, without getting bogged down in menus in the app.
None of this helps Gemini's branding problem—there are so many variations with different capabilities, like Gemini Nano, Gemini Ultra, Gemini Flash, and more recently, Gemini Live. Google Assistant, on the other hand, was one neat AI umbrella that handled everything. But now with Assistant getting an assist from Gemini, the company is not yet ready to replace it anytime soon, meaning we have to live with two assistants even longer.
The new Google Assistant experience is available for select Nest Aware subscribers as part of a public preview and is expected to roll out in 2025.
