The latest preview update for the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max is set to drop the ability of the larger smart display to act as a bridge/extender like the Nest Connect.
One of the lesser known features of the Nest Hub Max is its ability to extend the effective range of some Nest products such as the Nest Detect and the Nest x Yale smart lock. Instead of connecting via Wi-Fi, these devices rely on a traditional bridge device such as the Nest Connect, Nest Guard, or Nest Hub Max.
Back in June, we reported that the Nest Hub Max will drop this extender capability with an upcoming patch that Google has dubbed the “Thread-Matter Update.” While it was originally scheduled to arrive in “late July”, a related support page notes that the article update will be marked as “F7”, and the current stable update is “F6”. As you might expect, the letter “F” in “F7” is for fuchsia.
This evening, Google updated a support page showing details of the current firmware and preview firmware for Nest and Google Home devices. New listings show that the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max devices in the preview program will soon get the F7 update – 7.20220419.2.166 for the smaller hub and 7.20220419.2.164 for the larger one.
Notably, the arrival of this update may not necessarily indicate the availability of Matter/Thread devices for the Google Home network. Instead, this is just one of the many ways Google is preparing its devices and apps for the new smart home standard ahead of the feature’s official launch later this year.
In addition to removing the Nest Bridge/Extender features, we don’t currently expect a major change with the F7 update for the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max. For those affected by this removal, Google advises repositioning your devices to keep them connected, but if that’s not possible for your home, Google gives some customers free Nest Connect to act as an extender.
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