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Having trouble with your older-generation Nest smart thermostats? As of this week, Google is no longer providing software updates for its oldest devices.
Effective Oct. 25, 2025, the first- and second-gen Nest Learning Thermostats won’t connect to or work in the Google Nest app or Google Home app, Google says, effectively turning them back into dumb devices with little to no smart connectivity.
You can still use them to manually adjust your home’s temperature, but you can’t control them via your smartphone or get notifications about settings or bugs. This also kills any third-party device or assistant support, so check any automation routines you might have set up.
Google sent emails to the affected owners about the shutdown. It offered a newer model for $149.99, which is just over half the standard price of $280.
On the Nest subreddit, many question why they would purchase a new Nest thermostat when there are no guarantees it will work in the future. Others have suggested that people should know that smart functionality is not guaranteed forever; the affected devices date back to 2011 and 2014, after all. Others counter that if they wanted a dumb thermostat that didn’t connect to their devices, they’d have bought one for $20, not almost $300.
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They also argue that there’s nothing particularly complicated about connecting a device like a smart thermostat to your phone, so Google should be able to handle that. The cynical argument is that this is planned obsolescence, and Google merely wants to encourage users to buy the newer hardware.
Google has a long history of nuking products and services. Notable examples include Google Reader, Google+, Google Glass, and its Stadia game streaming service. Maybe we can get a Stop Killing Games movement for hardware next?
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Jon Martindale
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Jon Martindale is a tech journalist from the UK, with 20 years of experience covering all manner of PC components and associated gadgets. He’s written for a range of publications, including ExtremeTech, Digital Trends, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, and Lifewire, among others. When not writing, he’s a big board gamer and reader, with a particular habit of speed-reading through long manga sagas.
Jon covers the latest PC components, as well as how-to guides on everything from how to take a screenshot to how to set up your cryptocurrency wallet. He particularly enjoys the battles between the top tech giants in CPUs and GPUs, and tries his best not to take sides.
Jon’s gaming PC is built around the iconic 7950X3D CPU, with a 7900XTX backing it up. That’s all the power he needs to play lightweight indie and casual games, as well as more demanding sim titles like Kerbal Space Program. He uses a pair of Jabra Active 8 earbuds and a SteelSeries Arctis Pro wireless headset, and types all day on a Logitech G915 mechanical keyboard.
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