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Nest Secure Has an Unlisted, Disabled Microphone (androidauthority.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the hide-and-seek dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Android Authority: Owners of the Nest Secure alarm system have been able to use voice commands to control their home security through Google Assistant for a while now. However, to issue those commands, they needed a separate Google Assistant-powered device, like a smartphone or a Google Home smart speaker. The reason for this limitation has always seemed straightforward: according to the official tech specs, there's no onboard microphone in the Nest Secure system. However, Google just informed us that it is right now rolling out Assistant functionality to all Nest Secure devices via a software update. That's right: if you currently own a Nest Secure, you will be able to use it as a Google Home very soon. That means somewhere in the Nest Guard -- the keypad base station of the Nest Secure -- there might be a microphone we didn't know existed. Either that or your voice commands are going to be heard by another product (like your phone, maybe) but Assistant's output will now come from the Nest Guard, if you happen to be in the range of that device. UPDATE: Google has issued a statement to Android Authority confirming the built-in microphone in the Nest Guard base system that's not listed on the official spec sheet at Nest's site. The microphone has been in an inactive state since the release of the Nest Secure, Google says. This unlisted mic is how the Nest Guard will be able to operate as a pseudo-Google Home with just a software update.

7 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Good thing we can trust them with our data by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    id hate to think some company would install a secret microphone in peoples home and then also secretly work with the chinese government or something like that

  2. LOL by strikethree · · Score: 3, Funny

    Permit me to say: LOL

    I am shocked, shocked I say. ;)

    --
    "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  3. That does it! by PPH · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm putting my old mercury bulb thermostat back in.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  4. Re: Creepy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Imagine a girlfriend? This is slashdot

  5. FYI they are also renaming the device by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Google announced that, going forward, the thermostat will be called the:

    Nest “Secure” ;-)

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  6. that's how they got nixon! by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 4, Funny

    that's how they got nixon!

  7. Re:unlisted microphone? by Lab+Rat+Jason · · Score: 4, Funny

    What are the odds that a government, or other state sponsored entity already knew about this... and already updated your software?

    Asking for a friend...

    --
    Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?