Nest developers conscripted to work on Google Home

Previous reports indicated that Google was moving all of the developers at its Nest subsidiary and assigning them to work on a unified platform for the Internet of Things, according to Fortune. However, we’re now seeing that Nest won’t be gutted quite as dramatically as that early report claimed. Only some of the development team will be transitioning to work for Google Home, so Nest isn’t down and out yet.

The reassigned Nest developers will work on Google Home under Google’s senior vice president for Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer. Although some have been making jabs about an empty Nest, it would seem that a number of developers will stay on at the smart home company that Google bought for $3.2 billion two years ago. It’s unclear how many developers will leave nest or how many will be staying behind.

That unified IoT platform Google is allegedly working on would be a major shift in the company’s smart home strategy, which was recently set into silos with the introduction of Google Home and Brillo. Nest has its own IoT platform, “Works with Nest,” which doesn’t play nice with Brillo.

Unifying software would help strengthen Nest’s spot in the fold of Google parent company Alphabet. While Nest has been performing well for a company that’s still very much a startup, there have been murmurs indicating its Alphabet bosses expect more from it.

A couple months ago, Nest’s “shortcomings” were played up and then down when the company swapped its CEO for a guy how was famously tasked with overseeing the sale of Motorola Home. That guy, Marwan Fawaz, dismissed fears that he was prepping the company for a sale.

What are your thoughts regarding this shuffling of Nest staff within Alphabet? Is the the company putting its chips on Google Home instead of Nest? Let us know your interpretation of these events in the comments below!