Comparing Google Home App VS Nest App

As of now, Google has two main apps available for its smart home devices. One of these is the relatively new Google Home app, while the other one is the Nest App. Both of them are pretty similar, so how come there’s two of them?

If you’ve done some research about the two already, you might know that a lot of people prefer the Nest App over its Google Home counterpart. But, why is that the case if they have similar functions?

I’ve compiled a detailed comparison between the Google Home app vs the Nest App, which you can find if you keep reading below. It’s got everything you need to know about both of them, including their similarities and differences.

My video below will show you the preview of Google Home app and Nest app.

Google Home App VS Nest App – What’s The Difference?

Features

The Nest App and Google Home app are mostly similar to each other in terms of features. Both act as hubs that you can use to control devices in your smart home, and tweak certain settings related to them.

But, the Nest App has more detail in its features. For example, it allows you to rewind, save clips, access the overall timeline, and do so much more with your smart security cameras. It also has time stamps on exported videos, which the other option doesn’t.

On the other hand, the Google Home app doesn’t let you do any of these things so far. Instead, it just lets you watch a livestream of your camera feed.

All the examples are mostly like this. So, to put it shortly, the Google Home app and Nest App are mostly similar in features, but the latter has much more detail and efficiency in how its features work.

Read: What To Do if Google Home App is Not Working

User Interface and Menus

I think the biggest reason why people love Nest App so much more than the Google Home app is its user interface. Both have mostly identical looking menus and a similar UI at first glance.

However, it’s completely different when you get down to use it. The Nest App is so much easier to use, and comes with very simple menus that make it easy to find all your devices and manage them.

On the other hand, the Google Home app is needlessly difficult to navigate through at times, and has some frequent bugs which can be pretty annoying. So many people prefer the Nest app because of this.

Compatibility

Compatibility is one of the weaker points of the Nest app. It works well with most smart home devices before 2021. But, after that, it’s a pretty bad situation.

There’s a big reason for this, though. Google announced back in 2021 that any Nest devices would no longer have full compatibility with the Nest app, making it lose a lot of its function.

This angered a lot of people who were forced to switch to the Google Home app, hence making this such a popular comparison.

On the other hand, the Google Home app is comfortably compatible with most modern smart home devices, including all the newer models of the Google Nest.

The lack of compatibility implies that Google might be getting rid of the Nest App altogether soon, which has sparked a lot of outrage among users.

The Final Verdict

The Nest App is better than the Google Home app in pretty much every single way when it comes to being a smart home hub. But, for some reason, Google doesn’t see it that way.

It’s highly likely that the Nest App might no longer be functional starting 2024, meaning all Google smart home device owners will have to switch to the Google Home app.

So, while the Nest App is certainly better, the lack of post-2021 support for the Nest App makes the Google Home app an unlikely winner by default, as you’ll have to switch to it sooner or later.