Nest Migration to Google Accounts is Now Live

This morning, Google updated a bunch of their Google Nest Help pages with FAQ and instructions over migrating your Nest account to a Google account. Up until a few minutes ago, we weren’t seeing the option to perform the migration, but a Nest app update that just went live has given us that power. If you want, you can migrate your Nest account over to a Google account.

What’s the point and why would you want to migrate your Nest account? As you should already know, Google created the Google Nest brand back in May as a way to simplify accounts between both Google and Nest to pursue their idea of a “helpful home.” A big part of Google Nest is better integration with Google, which means moving your Nest world over to Google starting with your account. Migrating, as a part of that, lets you then access all of Nest through one of your Google accounts, tightening up the pairing of the two.

Should you migrate? Well, that’s up to you! There are both good and bad things to migrating, so we’ll start with the good.

By migrating your Nest account over to a Google account, you’ll have access to Nest and Google Home with a Google account rather than separate Google and Nest accounts. Google says this should bring “seamless product integrations” because all will be better connected, you’ll have a “consistent” view of who has access to your Google Home, and one set of privacy commitments that apply to both Nest and Google devices and services. You’ll also have more controls over Nest things from within the Google Home app and access to future products and services that you may not have without migrating.

On the downside, migrating over kills all of your “Works with Nest” integrations, which we knew was happening. Google is replacing that program with “Works with Google Assistant,” so even if you migrate and lose some connections between devices, there is a chance you’ll be able to re-enable through Assistant. You should read up on those changes here.

Do you have to migrate? Nope, not yet anyway. For now, Google is letting users keep Nest and Google separate, they are simply warning you that in the future, new connected devices and services may only be available to Google accounts and those who have migrated.

Have more questions? Whether you do or not, you should read through this lengthy FAQ on Nest migration before doing anything.

Once you have done that, get the latest Nest app (Google Play Link). After updating, open the app, tap the top-right settings and you should see an option to “Migrate to a Google Account.”

Let us know how it goes.