Google today announced a significant change to its smart home line of devices: it’s rebranding it under the Nest name. Now, whenever you go to purchase a smart home device from Google, it’ll have the Nest name attached to it. This is in order to keep all of its smart home devices in line with each other.
While on stage at I/O 2019, Google also announced a new addition to the Nest lineup. Called the Nest Hub Max, it’s essentially a larger version of the now-named Next Hub. It sports a 10-inch HD screen, stereo sound, and Google’s smart display software.
A big distinction between the Nest Hub Max and standard Nest Hub is the camera at the top. It’s 6.5MP and lets you video call others over Duo. During calls, it can track your motion to keep you in frame. On the back, there’s a switch to electronically unplug the camera and the microphones from the rest of the device for your security.
That camera is more capable than you might think, however. Not only can it video call people, but it can also be used as a security camera thanks to the Nest app. You can also use motion gestures to play and pause video simply by holding your hand up to the camera without having to touch anything. Then there’s Face Match which can recognize different people in your home and load up their own personalized experience, complete with their own information. All of this happens locally on the device and never gets stored in the cloud.
Overall, the Nest Hub Max seems promising. It’ll be sold for $229 and go on sale this July. In addition, the smaller Nest Hub has received a discounted price of $129.
