Google retires two smart home products and co-launches two replacements

Way back in October 2013, a young company called Nest Labs launched the Nest Protect, one of the first smart smoke/CO2 alarms to enter the burgeoning smart home market. Only a few months later, Google had swept in and bought Nest for $3.2 billion. Unbelievably, since then, not much has changed: Google still makes the Nest Protect ($99 at Amazon) and has only moderately increased its price over the past 12 years.

Today, however, the company is finally sending the Nest Protect off to pasture. Starting now, production of the Nest Protect will cease, and Google will sell through all remaining stock.

Instead of producing its own replacement for the Nest Protect, Google is looking to a partner to fill the gap. First Alert — owned by a company called Resideo — is co-launching with Google the new First Alert Smart Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm. Although a different firm makes it, the First Alert device is basically a Nest Protect 2 in that it integrates with existing Nest Protects and fully supports the Google Home app. In other words, if you have multiple Nest Protects throughout your house and one of them fails, you can just swap in one of these new First Alert alarms, and it will perform in pretty much the same fashion.

In fact, this new device even looks a lot like the Nest Protect, as you can see in the official image below:

The First Alert Smart Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm will go on sale in the United States and Canada “in the coming months” for a projected price of $129, the same price as the original Nest Protect. You can pre-order it now at First Alert’s site.

If you’re worried that this news means any Nest Protects you own will become paperweights, don’t worry. Google is still committed to offering security updates to all Nest Protect devices through their individual expiration dates.

A similar story for the Nest x Yale Lock, which is also being discontinued

It was never an official Made by Google product, but the 2018 Nest x Yale Lock was clearly developed in partnership with Google and Nest. The smart lock integrated smoothly with the Google Home platform and remains, to this day, the only smart lock with the Nest branding.

Unfortunately, this lock is also being retired today. As with the Nest Protect, Google and Yale will sell through the remaining stock of the device and cease to make any additional units.

Like the Nest Protect, Google and Yale will continue to support the Nest x Yale Lock with security updates. Additionally, Google will even integrate passcode management support and other new features with the Google Home app, making it still an excellent investment (or worth holding onto if you already have one).

To replace the Nest x Yale Lock, Yale is launching a smart lock called the Yale Smart Lock with Matter, which you can see in the image above. This will be the next-best thing to replace the Nest x Yale Lock.

Yale tells us this new smart lock will seamlessly integrate with the Google Home ecosystem — including Nest doorbells — along with general Matter-certified devices. It supports multiple entry methods, including passcode, app triggering, or even a conventional key. The lock will be available in three finishes (Ash, Matte Black, and Snow) and will cost $170. It will be available “later this summer.”