Google today announced that they are bringing Matter support to their Nest Thermostat (2020 version) with an over-the-air update. Starting today, April 18th 2023, the update will begin rolling out to users automatically and is expected to be completed for everyone over the next couple of weeks.
This will be the first thermostat to support Matter and is big news for Apple Home users as they will now be able to integrate the popular Nest Thermostat into their smart home without the need for third-party hardware/software like Homebridge or HOOBS. For iOS users, they will need to be on version iOS 16.4 or above.
With the new Matter update, users will now be able to control their thermostat with Alexa, SmartThings, Google Home, and Apple Home, all on a local level. The update, for now, is only for the Nest Thermostat released in 2020. Google says they are exploring bringing Matter to their Nest Learning Thermostat and Nest Thermostat E (which is discontinued). They are also exploring updating future thermostats so that they come with Matter already out-of-the-box.
Once your thermostat is updated with Matter, a new Matter Settings page will appear in the Google Home app and on the thermostat itself. From there you’ll be able to pair it with other Matter supported platforms using the Matter code that is generated. Currently, the Google Home app for iOS does not yet support Matter so Apple users will need to use the Matter pairing code from the thermostat itself in order to add it to their Apple Home. This process will change in the future once Google updates their iOS app with Matter.