Nest thermostats are now supported by Insteon, greatly expanding their capabilities

By Drew Prindle March 13, 2014

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Check out our full written Nest Thermostat review.

Despite the fact that it’s arguably the most popular smart home gadget of all time, and helped encouraged consumers to jump on the connected home bandwagon, the Nest connected thermostat isn’t the most capable smart thermostat in the game. It’s got plenty of smart features and a beautifully simple UI, but it doesn’t currently speak any of the major home automation languages, so aside from your phone, it can’t really communicate with other smart devices in your home.

Until now, that is.

Insteon, creators of the popular home automation and control technology of the same name, announced in a press release today that its home automation gateway, the Insteon Hub, can now connect to Nest’s popular Learning Thermostat. With this added functionality, users can now incorporate Nest into their home automation setups and use it to automatically control things like lighting, security systems, and more.

This is a smart move for Insteon. The company already offers an extremely diverse catalog of smart home products (including a variety of networked thermostats), but it isn’t anywhere near as popular or well-known as Nest. The addition of Nest’s uber-popular thermostat to its home automation ecosystem will likely help Insteon attract people who only own a Nest, and encourage them to explore what’s possible with additional smart home gizmos.

“Nest Thermostat users know the tremendous value of home automation and can now easily build a truly connected home through our INSTEON Hub, devices and mobile app,” said Joe Dada, CEO, Insteon. “Our affordable and wide array of products expands the possibilities of home connectivity, monitoring and control for Nest users.”

If you’ve already got a Nest thermostat and are interested in doing more with it, check out Insteon’s smarthome blog to find all the awesome stuff you can connect it to.

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Topics

Internet of Things (IoT)

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Drew Prindle is an award-winning writer, editor, and storyteller who currently serves as Senior Features Editor for Digital…

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