Google Home and Away routines will soon replace Nest Home/Away Assist

You can continue to use Home/Away Assist in the Nest app for now.

What you need to know

• Home and Away Routines in the Google Home app will soon replace the Home/Assist feature in the Nest app.
• Currently, however, Home & Away routines in Google Home cannot adjust Nest Guard.
• If you began using the Nest app before August last year, you will have to migrate to a Google account to use the Home app routines.

Earlier this month, Google rolled out a new update for the Google Home app, adding a few more Nest features. As spotted by the folks at Android Police, Google Chromecast support documentation has shed more light on the new Home & Away routines that will soon be available in the Google Home app.

The Home & Away Routines in the Google Home app are triggered using the new "presence sensing" feature, which uses sensors on your Nest products and location data from your phone to determine whether you're at home or not. While Home & Away routines work similarly to the Home/Away Assist feature in the Nest app, Google says it offers "some improvements."

In order to use Home and Away routines in the Google Home app, you must migrate to a Google account. Unlike Home/Away assist in the Nest app, Home & Away routines in the Google Home app can adjust smart lights, plugs, and switches as well. However, you cannot adjust Nest Guard with Home & Away routines yet. While you can continue using both apps for now, your phone will only be able to use geo-fence from one app at a time. If you enable it one app, it will automatically get disabled in the other app.

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