LIVE FROM APPS WORLD 2015: Nest wants to take “unused and unloved” devices in the home and reinvent them – but it can’t do this alone, said Francois Girodolle, head of European product partnerships for the company.

This is why it launched Works with Nest and is working on Nest Weave.

Works with Nest allows third party devices to interact with Nest’s own products.

“It is an open, free and live programme for the developer community, allowing partners to create meaningful interactions,” said Girodolle.

There are already 11,000 developers on the platform, including Pebble, Logitech and Bosch, and one in eight Nest customers use devices with Works with Nest integration across 100 countries.

Nest Weave is already used internally and will be available to developers next year. It is a communication protocol that lets devices talk directly to each other and to Nest products, independent of the cloud or internet connectivity, using a local API.

It will allow developers to fully integrate their device with the Nest app.

The Linus lock by Yale is the first Works with Nest product to use Nest Weave.

That’s not to say Nest isn’t hard at work with its own products. Its smart thermostat now also controls hot water along with heating, and it recently launched Nest Cam, following an acquisition of Dropcam in June for $555 million.

“The real magic, however, happens when these products work together,” said Girodolle. For instance, if Nest Protect detects smoke or carbon monoxide, it will send an alert to the app, switch off the boiler and record whats happening via Nest Cam.

The Nest app
Unlike most apps, for instance in the gaming and entertainment sector, the Nest app does not compete for attention and doesn’t want to distract the user, said Girodolle. It is also not intended as a remote control for appliances in the home.

Rather, the company wants it to work quietly in the background, only providing notifications if an important action needs to be taken, such as when smoke is detected.

It will learn from the user and control temperatures on its own, and provide information about energy usage and “at-a-glance views and controls” when wanted.

Nest has also ventured into the automotive space with a car being able to connect with the thermostat at home or in the office to send arrival times, so it can adjust temperatures accordingly. It has partnered with Mercedes Benz and wants to expand offerings in this sector in the future.

“Our vision is to create a thoughtful home and each device we create is a stepping stone towards this vision,” he said.