Nest is rolling out two new features that will enable its connected devices to provide a better experience. Nest-connected homes will now be able to tell whether the user is at home or not with two new features called Family Accounts and Home/Away assist. So when Nest products are aware if the user is at home or not, they can do the right thing automatically like turning the lights on or off or turning the heat up or down.
Family Accounts have been introduced to make it easier to share your Nest with the people you share your home with. Family Accounts allow you to add up to ten people to access the Nest products in your home using the Nest app and via their own Nest Accounts. This eliminates the need to share logins and passwords for a single Nest Account that controls everything.
This feature allows members of your family or the people you share your home with to easily control the Nest Thermostat, get notifications from Nest Protect, check on the home using Nest Cam and even receive their own copy of the monthly Home Report.
The Home/Away Assist feature uses learning algorithms and activity sensors built into its products to determine whether or not you’re home. It also uses your phone’s location to make that decision and when family members opt-in for Family Accounts, the feature uses data from their phones as well to ascertain if they’re at home.
Nest says that its products don’t track where users go, the data is used only to determine whether you’re home or not. It promises that all of the data is kept safe and secure as it’s transferred using encrypted connections. The new features are live now and can be used by updating to the latest version of the Nest app.