4 Ways Google Wants Your Home To Be More Sensitive To Your Needs

Through its just announced Nest Developer Program, Google GOOGGOOGL wants to do no less than help create a “more conscious and thoughtful home,” according to the company in a blog post Monday.

The post begins, “Wouldn’t it be cool if our homes could be more aware? If they could learn from us? And help take care of us?” The idea is to encourage developers the world over to create applications that allow Nest devices to interact with other devices in the home – things like lights, appliances, fitness bands and even automobiles.

In addition to making interaction among devices more efficient and safer, the goal is also to save energy automatically while creating personalized experiences.

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Safety First

Google listed several of what it called ‘Works with Nest’ integrations already available including LIFX light bulbs that interact with Nest Protect to pulse red in an emergency.

Nest Thermostat’s Away mode, Google said, could interact with LIFX to make users houses appear occupied while they are on vacation by turning lights on and off randomly.

Convenient Parking

For users who own an enabled Mercedes-Benz automobile, their cars could alert Nest when they would arrive home, based on ETA. Using this technology, the house could be heated or cooled to a comfortable temperature when the user walks in the door.

Hands-Free Laundry?

The Rush Hour Rewards feature would allow Nest to let Whirlpool WHR appliances know when an energy “rush hour” was approaching. This would cause the washer or dryer to delay the start of a cycle to avoid using energy (and thereby earning rush hour rewards) during peak demand times.

Gadget-Friendly, Of Course

As “touchy-feely” as it all sounded, the ultimate goal behind the program, according to TechCrunch, would be to sell more Nest gadgets.

By integrating the smart home experience through the “Works With Nest” program, Google wants to take what is a largely fragmented infrastructure and make it all dependent on one central gadget – the Nest Learning Thermostat.

The ability to personalize the programming of Nest gadgets would create a unique home environment experience for each individual homeowner. This could include using IFTTT to send a text message to a specific neighbor if smoke were detected.

Or sending a Twitter Direct Message to users if they were away from home and air conditioning was suddenly turned down – an indication it might be time to call whoever was home and ask what was going on.

Plans call for Google Now to become “Works with Nest” certified sometime in the fall. This would allow Android users to command their Nest thermostats while away from home.

At the time of this writing, Jim Probasco had no position in any mentioned securities.