automation founded 2010 headquarters palo alto california united states products nest learning thermostat nest protect smoke co alarm nest cam indoor nest cam outdoor nest app number of employees 1100 2015 1 parent google 2014 2015 alphabet inc. 2015 present website www.nest.com nest labs is a home automation producer of programmable self learning sensor driven wi fi enabled thermostats smoke detectors and other security systems . it introduced the nest learning thermostat in 2011 as its first product . the nest protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector was then introduced in october 2013 . 2 after the acquisition of dropcam the rebranded nest cam was introduced in june 2015 . 3 finally in july 2016 the nest cam outdoor was released . 4 co founded by former apple engineers tony fadell and matt rogers in 2010 the start up company quickly grew to have more than 130 employees by the end of 2012 . 5 alphabet inc. google acquired nest labs for us 3.2 billion in january 2014 when it had 280 employees continuing the nest brand identity . in november 2015 nest labs had grown into more than 1100 employees with a new engineering center in seattle . 1 6 7 contents 1 history 2 products 2.1 nest learning thermostat 2.2 nest protect 2.3 nest cam indoor 2.4 nest cam outdoor 3 works with nest 3.1 compatible products 4 litigation 4.1 parody after google acquisition 5 intentional disabling of hardware devices 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit nest labs was founded in 2010 by former apple engineers tony fadell and matt rogers . 8 the idea came when fadell was building a vacation home and found all of the available thermostats on the market to be inadequate motivated to bring something better on the market . 6 early investors in nest labs included shasta ventures and kpcb . on january 13 2014 google announced plans to acquire nest labs for 3.2 billion in cash . google completed the acquisition the next day on january 14 2014 . 9 10 in june 2014 it was announced that nest would buy camera startup dropcam for 555 million . 11 with the purchase dropcam is tightly integrated with other nest products ; if the protect alarm is triggered the dropcam can automatically start recording and the thermostat can use dropcam to sense for motion . 12 in september 2014 the nest thermostat and nest protect became available in belgium france ireland and the netherlands . initially they are sold in approximately 400 retail stores across europe with another 150 stores to be added by the end of the year . 13 in june 2015 the new nest cam replacing the dropcam was announced together with the second generation of the nest protect . 14 in august 2015 google announced plans to split nest labs from google inc. and for both to become subsidiaries of alphabet inc. in a corporate restructuring . 15 the restructuring led to tony fadell the nest ceo to announce in a blog post in june 2016 that he was leaving the company he founded with matt rogers and stepping into an advisory role . 16 it culminated after months of rumors about nest s demanding corporate culture under fadell s leadership and the displeasure of former dropcam ceo greg duffy who openly regretted selling his company to nest . by june 2016 the nest acquisition was described by some press as a disaster for google . 17 nest s problems in 2016 stem in a large part due to a limited market . according to frank gillet of forrester research only 6 % of american households possess internet connected devices such as appliances home monitoring systems speakers or lighting . he also predicted this percentage to grow to only 15 % by 2021 . furthermore 72 % of respondents in a 2016 survey conducted by pricewaterhouse coopers did not foresee adopting smart home technology over the next two to five years . 18 products edit nest learning thermostat edit main article nest learning thermostat the nest learning thermostat is an electronic programmable and self learning wi fi enabled thermostat that optimizes heating and cooling of homes and businesses to conserve energy . 19 it is based on a machine learning algorithm for the first weeks users have to regulate the thermostat in order to provide the reference data set . nest can then learn people s schedule at which temperature they are used to and when . using built in sensors and phones locations it can shift into energy saving mode when it realizes nobody is at home . 20 the nest thermostat s front screen generation release date 1st 25 oct 2011 2nd 2 october 2012 3rd 1 september 2015 nest learning thermostat showing weather s impact on energy usage the nest thermostat is built around an operating system that allows interaction with the thermostat via spinning and clicking of its control wheel which brings up option menus for switching from heating to cooling access to device settings energy history and scheduling . users can control nest without a touch screen or other input device . as the thermostat is connected to the internet the company can push updates to fix bugs improve performance and add additional features . for updates to occur automatically the thermostat must be connected to wi fi and the battery must have at least a 3.7 v charge to give enough power to complete the download and installation of the update . 21 the operating system itself is based on linux 2.6.37 and many other free software components . 22 to comply with the terms of the gplv3 license under which some components are available nest labs also provides a special firmware image which will unlock the system so that it will accept unsigned firmware images . while the thermostat software by nest labs itself remains proprietary a third party has reimplemented the basic logic in an open source replacement called freeabode . nest is currently available for sale in the united states canada 23 the united kingdom . 24 belgium france ireland italy and the netherlands . it is however compatible with many heating and cooling automation systems in other countries . 25 nest labs have surveyed existing users known to be outside the areas where it is officially available . use of the thermostat outside the united states and canada is complicated by the software setting time and other functions based on the zip code . for international users this means they must either disable wi fi to set the time correctly or use the nearest u.s. zipcode which may result in erratic behavior as the thermostat makes faulty assumptions about inactivity corresponding with either sleep or the home s occupants being away . 26 nest protect edit nest protect in october 2013 nest announced its second product the nest protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector . the nest protect is available in both black and white the black is exclusively sold through nest directly 27 and also comes in battery or ac powered models . the nest protect features a multicolored light ring which is color coded to indicate different operations such as yellow to indicate an early warning or red if an alarm is sounding . the ring also has a motion detector which turns it white briefly when someone passes under to provide illumination . the nest protect is voice activated and warns of an alarm sounding briefly before it does . it is also able to communicate with the nest thermostat to provide the auto away feature information that someone is present in the house as well as to shut off the furnace in the event of a fire or carbon monoxide . the nest protect also features a controversial wave silence feature to stop an alarm from sounding with a wave in the event of a potential false alarm . it is available for sale in the united states canada the united kingdom belgium france ireland and the netherlands . on april 3 2014 sales of the nest protect were suspended due to the potential for the alarm feature to be accidentally disabled . 28 29 30 440 000 existing nest protect units were recalled because of this problem on may 21 2014 and a software update was distributed to disable this functionality . 31 32 on june 17 2015 nest launched a new version of the nest protect . it is the first smoke alarm to bring a commercial grade photoelectric sensor to the home ; called the split spectrum sensor it uses two wavelengths of light to spot different kinds of smoke which helps it catch both fast and slow burning fires quickly . additionally due to the long lasting carbon monoxide sensor the nest protect lasts ten years . the new nest protect also has a feature called app silence which lets you silence it using your smart device if you are not in the us or canada . 33 also when you are not home the smoke detector will test itself using a built in microphone . safety rewards allows nest protect users that have their insurance through american family and liberty mutual to get savings off their bill . nest cam indoor edit in june 2014 nest acquired dropcam maker of the dropcam security camera . in june 2015 . nest announced the nest cam an upgraded and rebranded security camera based on the dropcam . features are a 1080p video resolution a rotating magnetic stand night vision two way talk sound and motion alerts and optional nest aware cloud services for an additional fee . it was renamed nest cam indoor following the announcement of the nest cam outdoor in july 2016 . nest cam outdoor edit nest cam outdoor was announced in july 2016 and is a version of the nest cam adapted for outdoor monitoring . the main differences from the nest cam indoor is in its design which is built to withstand outdoor conditions . works with nest edit works with nest is a program that allows third party devices to communicate with nest products . compatible products edit myfox home alarm 34 keen home smart vent 35 philips hue 36 august smart lock 37 whirlpool washers whirlpool dryers chamberlain myq 38 kevo smart lock 39 lifx 40 pebble 41 wallyhome 42 ooma telo 43 lutron lights and shades 44 ifttt 45 rachio iro 46 mercedes benz 47 big ass fans 48 automatic 49 insteon 50 withings aura 51 logitech harmony 52 life360 53 jawbone up24 54 ivee sleek 55 google now 56 scout alarm 57 zuli smartplugs 58 sense mother 59 chargepoint home ev charging station coming soon 60 wink 61 lg appliances 62 beep dial 63 vinli 64 crestron 64 simplisafe 64 osram lightify 64 yonomi 65 haven smart lock coming soon luna smart mattress cover coming soon neeo coming soon litigation edit in february 2012 honeywell filed a lawsuit claiming that some of its patents had been infringed by nest ; nest has said that it will fight the lawsuit . on april 12 2012 nest publicly announced they will see honeywell all the way to court as they believe that none of the seven allegedly infringed patents were actually violated . honeywell is claiming that nest has infringed on patents pertaining to remotely controlling a thermostat power stealing thermostats and thermostats designed around a circular interactive design similar to the honeywell t87 . however honeywell held patents that were almost identical to those that expired in 2004 . nest has taken the stance that they will see this through to a patent court as they suspect honeywell is trying to harass them litigiously and financially out of business . 66 on may 14 2013 allure energy inc. allure was issued a patent by the uspto titled auto adaptable energy management apparatus . the very same day allure filed