Smoke detectors are unsexy, but the nest Protect has the best accessibility Feature
In a report filed late last week, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy at The Verge beared bad news for longtime Nest aficionados like me: Google is discontinuing the Nest Protect smoke alarm, released in 2013. Tuohy points to a post on Google’s Nest Community Forum in which the company says in part it has ceased manufacturing of Nest Protect while noting it’s available for purchase from Google’s online store and third-party retailers “while supplies last.” Google attempted to allay fears of looming non-functionality by reassuring current Nest Protect users the device “will continue to receive security updates and continue to work as they always have through their expiration dates.”
Google is replacing the Nest Protect with the First Alert Smart Smoke & CO Alarm.
Although Tuohy characterizes the move as “this week’s least surprising news,” it certainly surprised me—but maybe it shouldn’t have as someone who’s clinging to the OG Nest app on my iPhone and iPad instead of (begrudgingly) embracing the Google Home app. I have a slew of older-but-still-perfectly-good Nest devices in my home, including the Nest Thermostat E, Nest Hello doorbell, the also-discontinued Nest × Yale door lock, and a couple Nest IQ outdoor cameras. None of them support neither Matter nor Thread, so they’re hooked into HomeKit through the delightfully simple and straightforward Starling Home Hub. I acknowledge there inevitably will come a day when all of these devices stop receiving software support, which will compel me to upgrade, but I will ride with them as long as possible. As I said, everything still works with aplomb and, frankly, both my partner and I love the Nest ease of use and design.
All of our Nest devices make our home more accessible to me—even the Nest Protect. However unsexy a smoke detector may be, what makes the Protect so endearing in use is its so-called Pathlight feature. Google describes the functionality as “[lighting] your way so you don’t need to stumble around in the dark. It’s ideal for any location in your home where you’d like a bit of extra light,” adding “it’s like a nightlight that turns on when you walk by your Google Nest Protect, and turns off after you’ve passed.” Pathlight, the company says, uses high-efficiency LED lights. Pathlight is a de-facto accessibility feature for me at night when I get out of bed and stumble down the hall to use the bathroom. There’s a setting in the Nest app (and Google Home) where users can adjust the intensity of the light, but I’ve left ours at the default Medium brightness. Pathlight makes it so much more accessible—and safer!— to get to and from the bathroom, as my vision in darkness and low-light is terrible. It’s one of those features ostensibly built for convenience that, in actuality, is equally beneficial for accessibility’s sake. It’s convenient that there’s a sensor in the Nest Protect up on the ceiling that automatically lights my way, but it’s arguably more important the light makes it more accessible to get up and down the hallway safely. Accessibility trumps convenience.
