Google Launches New Nest Hub

Google announced today that its second-generation Nest Hub is available for preorder. It costs $99.99 and comes in four different colors. It’s not clear, however, when it will ship to the public.

“We know people already come to Google for information and tools to help them live healthier, happier lives, and we’ve specifically noticed more and more questions about sleep, exercise[,] and health,” Google’s Ashton Udall writes. “So we decided to bring these kinds of solutions to our second-generation Nest Hub, while also improving what people already love about it.”

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New features include:

Sleep Sensing. A new opt-in feature called Sleep Sensing uses Google’s Soli low-energy radar technology to analyze your sleep using movement and breathing, and not a camera or a wearable. It can detect sleep disturbances like coughing and snoring or light and temperature changes in the room. In the morning, Nest Hub will provide you with a personalized sleep summary, and it can connect to Google Fit. Sleep Sensing is free until next year, Google says.

Other sleep features. The new Nest Hub can also dim its display to make the bedroom more sleep-friendly. It provides a “Your evening” view to help you wind down at night with relaxing sounds. And a Sunrise Alarm gradually brightens the display and increases the alarm volume over time; you can use Motion Sense to wave your hand and snooze the alarm.

Thread support. Nest Hub includes a Thread radio and will work with the new connectivity standard being created by the Project Connected Home over IP working group.

The new Nest Hub also provides 50 percent more bass than the previous version, Google says, and it supports Quick Gestures that let you pause or play content at any time by tapping the air in front of the smart display. And as with Nest Mini and Nest Audio, it has a dedicated on-device machine learning chip that moves some Google Assistant experiences from the cloud and directly onto the device, at least in the U.S., resulting in better performance.

The new Nest Hub is available in Chalk, Charcoal, Sand, and a new Mist color. It’s available for preorder now from the Google Store in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the U.K., and at other retailers.

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Conversation 5 comments

  • behindmyscreen

    16 March, 2021 - 11:21 am

    <p>I would be so happy if they started playing nice with iCloud Photos and Apple Music.</p>

  • bluvg

    16 March, 2021 - 11:47 am

    <p>When Google starts suggesting questions like "hey, don't you want to ask me about better sleep habits?" you know you're in trouble. ?</p>

  • gregsedwards

    Premium Member
    16 March, 2021 - 12:09 pm

    <p>Still no camera in the low-end version, though. I expect Google will soon announce a refreshed v2 of the Home Hub Max with an integrated Nest camera and all the above, likely priced at $299.</p>

  • JerryH

    Premium Member
    16 March, 2021 - 3:45 pm

    <p><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sleep Sensing is free until next year</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. So a poorly thought out feature (two people sharing a bed will not have this work properly) is going to cost money in the future? I bet they kill that service even faster than most Google services get killed.</span></p>

    • anoldamigauser

      Premium Member
      16 March, 2021 - 10:15 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#618391">In reply to JerryH:</a></em></blockquote><p>Personally, I have no desire for Google to monitor what is going on in a bed shared with another. Ads are creepy enough now.</p>

  • anoldamigauser

    Premium Member
    17 March, 2021 - 11:22 am

    <blockquote><em><a href="#618536">In reply to SvenJ:</a></em></blockquote><p>The radar waves created a topographic map indicating a molehill where it expected a mountain ;-?</p><p><br></p><p>Jerry, tell it about the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG2dF5PS0bI&quot; target="_blank">shrinkage factor</a>…</p>

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