Call me old but I simply don't buy home appliances with internet connection or companion app.
DeGoogle - Canada
DeGoogle - expelling Google from Canada one device at a time.
Check out these other Communities:
Alternatives
Recommended alternatives for all the Google products, software and services
NOTE: We're trying to recommend you alternatives which are FOSS (or mostly so) and privacy-respecting. This is by no means an exhaustive list of alternatives.
Notable
'Google Search' alternatives:
- Ecosia
- DuckDuckGo
- SearX. Find an instance here, or use any of these:
- YaCy (to use it, you need to install the app)
- Mojeek
'YouTube' alternatives:
- PeerTube. Find an instance here, or use any of these:
- MediaGoblin. Find an instance here, or use any of these:
'Gmail' alternatives:
(E-mail providers which don't offer at least 1 free of charge plan weren't listed)
'Google Chrome' alternatives:
(We don't recommend any Chromium-based browsers and browsers that use the Blink browser engine)
'Google Maps' alternatives:
'Google Earth' alternatives:
'Chromebook' alternatives:
- MNT Reform
- Olimex DIY Laptop
- Vikings X200 - RYF (Respects Your Freedom) edition
- Purism Librem 14
- System76's laptops
- Pinebook Pro
- KDE Slimbook 14
- ThinkPenguin's laptops
- TUXEDO's laptops
- Star Labs' laptops
- Technoethical's laptops
'Chrome OS' alternatives:
- GNU/Linux. Find a GNU/Linux distro here, or use any of these:
- BSD. Find a BSD OS here, or use any of these:
'Google Analytics' alternatives
The Mod Team has not vetted any of the above services, these are only recommendations based on user feedback. It is recommended you properly and thoroughly research any product or service you are interested in using.-
It was foreseeable that they will drop support after a few years to “force” users to buy new thermostats. No surprise here.
If one needs something reliable that is not depending on any cloud crap from Google or other advertising companies, openHAB is the most free and open solution (but also likely takes the most effort to initially integrate).
openHAB is german 🇩🇪 too!
I mean, no company is going to support a product indefinitely. The first nests are 11 years old.
They don't need to offer support, (technical) access to the device is enough. Those devices could be used locally without issues.
They do neither.
It's not surprising to me but there's is a way beyond infinite support.
The devices can still be controlled locally, just run homeassistant (which everyone should be doing).
Oh I was under the impression that nest is dependent on their API services - happy to be wrong!that said no one should use home assistant after their proxy debacle and their unwillingness to follow up on their promise to open source their remote service.
I don't understand why everyone is recommending them, their track record on backtracking is en pair with an enterprise...
Edit: I don't want to pull anyone away from home assistant, I phrased that too aggressive. I just wonder how so many people flock to it with this track record and at the same time are concerned about big tech companies. TE vendor lockin appears too me and the control lies completely in one companies hand. Even with open source core that's just too much if a risk for me personally.
The devices can still be used locally without issues. They're not bricking the devices; you just can't use their cloud service with them.
While these are 14 year old models, it'd be really cool if companies at least got in the habit of designation at least one device as being LTS
That way consumers can choose if they want latest and greatest (but with a limited lifespan) or an LTS model that will last forever (but maybe has less fancy features and is much simpler, but functional)
If Google put out a Nest LTS that was lower MSRP, had very little features, and was very minimalist, but had a 30 year LTS gaurentee, I'd buy it.