In the drought of new Nest Hub updates, Google’s head of Home has confirmed that, yes, the Nest Hub is not dead, but there’s also no “explicit news” just yet.
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Google has updated the confirmation tone that plays when you activate smart home hardware devices like lights, switches, and more with the Nest Hub, Nest Audio, and Pixel Tablet.
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While the Nest Hub feels like a forgotten product due to the existence of the Pixel Tablet, it’s a unique and popular product that remains the sensible choice for most people’s smart home systems – here’s why.
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Google has begun rolling out version 16 of its Fuchsia operating system to Nest Hub devices, bringing improvements to Bluetooth, Matter, and Thread.
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It remains to be seen whether Google plans to bring Gemini to Smart Displays and speakers. At the same time, stock for the Nest Hub and speaker family of products is not as plentiful as it once was.
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At launch, Sleep Sensing on the 2nd-gen Nest Hub was available as a “free preview” that was later extended to 2023. As 2024 starts, Google has so far not delayed when it “plans to integrate Sleep Sensing into Fitbit Premium.”
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Google has begun rolling out a new preview update for the Nest Hub series, and we have an idea of what’s new, thanks to the Fuchsia version 14 patch notes.
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The Google Nest Hub and Hub Max have seen more feature removals than additions in the past year. As we head into the holiday season, it’s worth asking whether the Nest Hub is a good buy in its current state.
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A key selling point of the 2nd-gen Nest Hub is Soli-powered sleep tracking, and Google is now updating how respiration data is shown on the device.
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A new preview update is rolling out to Google’s Nest Hub series, and the Fuchsia patch notes reveal what’s new in the version 12 update.
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Ahead of the launch of the Pixel Tablet, one of the key selling points was that it would effectively be a detachable Nest Hub with much better hardware. However, after using it for a few weeks, I don’t think the Pixel Tablet is actually a better Nest Hub, despite everything that it does well.
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Google Nest Hubs automatically reboot and/or install updates every night, but an emerging issue sees some Assistant Smart Displays stuck, or bricked, on the “Updating” screen.
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A year ago yesterday, Google announced that it was ending support for third-party Assistant voice apps, including games, and this is now underway on the Nest Hub.
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A little over a week after Fuchsia rolled out to those enrolled in the Preview Program, Google is already updating 2nd-gen Nest Hubs in the stable channel.
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Following the announcement earlier this month, Google looks to be more widely rolling out Fuchsia to 2nd-gen Nest Hubs enrolled in the Preview Program.
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Google is now rolling out a Fuchsia-based update for the second-generation Nest Hub, marking the third device to officially run on the homegrown operating system.
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Back in 2020, Google introduced a neat new feature on its Nest Hub smart displays which would add a theme to the timer to match certain types of food you were cooking, among other things. For a limited number of users, though, that feature has been broken for a few weeks.
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In addition to Google no longer updating third-party Smart Displays, the Nest Hub is set to lose Assistant voice apps and games in June, and users are now seeing a warning ahead of that.
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With the upcoming release of the Pixel Tablet, Google is once again reshaping the Google Assistant smart display ecosystem, which started on Android and has now come full circle back to Android.
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The Google Nest Hub is a useful device and, with its second generation, it’s also a great option for playing music. But lately, Google seems to have tweaked the Nest Hub and several other smart speakers to be considerably louder when playing at lower volume settings.
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Last March, Google appeared to accidentally roll out a rather significant redesign of the Nest Hub UI. It was quickly pulled, but the visual revamp has since made a surprising, offline reappearance.
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Google has quietly updated the interface on the Nest Hub with a new “Security” page, but with the unfortunate side effect of making it much harder to access cameras without using voice.
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There are plenty of useful commands to use on Google Assistant devices, with everything from setting timers to launching music. But for many lately, Google Assistant sleep timers for stopping music have been broken on devices such as the Nest Hub.
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When the 2nd-gen Nest Hub was announced in March of 2021, Google said Sleep Sensing would eventually become a paid feature. After previously targeting 2023, sleep tracking will now be free for another year.
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