Best Nest and Google Assistant devices of 2020 – CNET

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The Google Nest Hub (formerly the Home Hub) is a great way to kick off a Google-centric smart home. It uses Google Assistant to respond to all of the same voice commands as a Google Home smart speaker. The touchscreen will show you extra info when you ask about the weather, search for restaurants and more. Plus, you can use this smart home hub to watch videos or scroll through family pictures.

In fact, unique adaptive brightness sensors make the Nest Hub a great digital photo frame, as it adapts to both light levels and color temperature so it always looks like a physical photo in a frame. You can play a scrolling slideshow of family pics as your screensaver.

The Nest Hub is also a great kitchen helper, as it can walk you through recipes step-by-step and you can multitask while you cook. Set a timer, play music, add an ingredient to your shopping list and more — the Nest Hub will even keep your place in the recipe when you need to check it next. You can plug it in and set it up on your Wi-Fi network using the Google Home app and ask Google Nest Hub any question you’d ask the original Google Home. 

All of these voice control features make the Nest Hub useful in a lot of ways, but a simple control panel makes it the best choice for your central connected home device. Swipe down from the top for shortcuts letting you turn off the lights or check on your smart home security cameras. You can then tap to see a room-by-room (living room, kitchen, etc.) overview of all of your devices. The control panel is well organized and helpful, particularly if you have family members that struggle to remember what voice commands work. Now, they can just tap. 

The Nest Hub is our favorite smart display overall, and regularly on sale for even less than its reasonable $130 price. It’s useful even if you don’t have a lot of smart home gadgets, but it’s indispensable if you want a smart home that works with Google Assistant.

Read our Google Nest Hub review.

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If having an extra screen in your house would annoy you, the Google Nest Mini makes another good smart home starting point. Google’s small smart speaker is now in its second generation and offers all of the same Google Assistant-enabled voice commands as the rest, plus helpful extras like intercom functionality and stereo pairing with multiple Minis. Control compatible gadgets, search the web, play music and more just by asking. The audio quality of the Nest Mini is surprisingly good, especially in this second gen model. 

The Nest Mini is also cute and comes in four colors. At $50, it’s the least expensive way to kick off your smart home without any sacrifices in voice control. The Nest Mini also makes for a good secondary device. If you put a Google Nest Hub in your kitchen, you can put a Nest Mini in a different room, and both will be able to control any compatible smart devices you set up. Even if they both hear you, only the closest one will respond.

Read our Google Nest Mini review.

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Once you set up control points with a smart display or a smart speaker, it’s time to figure out what smart devices you want. A smart lightbulb is a good first step, and the C by GE bulbs work particularly well with Google. 

These affordable Bluetooth smart bulbs can use a Google Home device (both the Home Mini and the Nest Hub will work) as a bridge. You can set up the bulbs from the Google Home app then control them from anywhere as long as the bulb is close to your Google gadget. Even better, because the bulb is communicating directly with your Google device, the response time is incredibly quick. (If you’re looking to smarten things up at the light switch, read more about the Lutron Caseta In-Wall Dimmer Switch.)

Read more about C by GE lights.

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Changing the temperature of your thermostat with a voice command is a cool trick that never really gets old. Lots of smart thermostats work with Google Assistant. Check out our smart thermostat best list for options. Since Google owns Nest, the third-generation Nest Learning Thermostat is the obvious choice here, but I’ll give the nod to the Ecobee3 Lite. 

Ecobee’s budget model and its companion app (for iOS and Android) offer most of the same smarts as more expensive competition, including the $250 Nest model. It responds to all of the same voice commands and the intuitive controls make manual scheduling easy.

Read our Ecobee3 Lite review.

Here’s everything that works with Google Home and Home Mini

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A smart plug is a great way to efficiently add connectivity to dumb devices. Plug in a lamp or fan, and you’ll be able to control it with an app. The TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug offers smartphone app controls and Google Assistant compatibility. Plus, the smart plug is an attractive design and doesn’t block adjacent outlets. 

It won’t monitor energy, but the smart plug lets you control an old-fashioned floor fan with your voice for a reasonable price. Like most smart plugs, it works with a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network connection.

Read our TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug review.

Chris Monroe/CNET

The obvious choice from Nest makes the most sense here. The $300 Nest Cam IQ Indoor is a great security camera in its own right. You can check out a live stream remotely and get motion sensor alerts and person alerts for free. Sign up for Nest’s premium “Nest Aware” service and you can get alerts based on who the camera sees thanks to its built-in facial recognition.

Even better, the Nest Cam security cameras have a built-in microphone so you can use them to talk directly to Google Assistant, making it a great choice both to secure your home and expand your connectivity with Google.

Read our Nest Cam IQ Indoor review.

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The $500 Arlo Pro 3 is an excellent outdoor security camera with solid performance and strong features. It comes in a two-camera pack, along with a required hub. Older Arlo hubs will work with this system too. Add-on individual cameras cost $200 each.

The Pro 3 has a built-in siren and works with Google Assistant, Alexa and Siri. A USB drive in the hub handles local storage.

The Arlo Pro 3 has stellar 2k streaming, fast alerts and a wide range of advanced features that set it apart from other outdoor security cameras. If you have the money to spend, the Arlo Pro 3 should be at the top of your list.

Read our Arlo Pro 3 review.

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SimpliSafe’s wide variety of accessories rival professional options from companies like ADT. The starter kit is a reasonable $230. Unfortunately, you have to pay for remote app access, but $25 a month nets you that and professional monitoring. 

With the $25 monthly subscription, you also can control your system with Google Assistant, and Simplisafe’s devices will respond quickly to your voice commands. 

Again, Nest has an option here that poses a viable alternative. The Nest Guard has a loftier up-front cost, but you can do much more without a subscription. Thanks to all of the reliable accessories, SimpliSafe edges out Nest Guard especially if you want monitoring.

Read our SimpliSafe Home Security review.

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Speaking of locking down your home, the easy-to-install August Wi-Fi Smart Lock fits over your existing deadbolt. Built-in Wi-Fi lets you control it remotely and with voice recognition, so you can tell Google Assistant to lock your door. 

The August Wi-Fi Smart Lock has lots of features, including open-close sensors so you can check to make sure you pulled the door shut on your way out. August is responsive and reliable as well, making the Wi-Fi Smart Lock a good choice if you want to put Google Assistant in charge of your smart lock, door and entryway.

Read our August Wi-Fi Smart Lock review.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Wrapping this up with another one from Nest, but to be fair, the Nest Hello is our favorite video doorbell overall, so it’s definitely the best one for a Google-centric smart home. The Nest Hello has two-way audio sound and great video quality when you want to check on the feed from your Android or iOS devices. You’ll get an alert when someone rings the bell.

Even better, if you have the Nest Hub, you can talk to the person at the door with your smart display. The Nest Hello even offers facial recognition for a premium subscription. It ties together well with other Google products, and it’s the smartest and most capable video doorbell out there.

Read our Nest Hello review.