It used to be a total nightmare. Honestly, for years, the "smart home wars" meant that if you bought a Nest Learning Thermostat, you were basically flipping the bird to your Apple devices. Google owned Nest. Apple owned HomeKit. The two giants simply refused to talk to each other, leaving users stuck with a phone full of separate apps and a wall of frustration. You'd have your high-end Nest Cam in one app and your HomePod in another, and never the twain shall meet.
But things changed.
The dream is simple: you want to add Nest to Apple HomeKit so you can say, "Hey Siri, set the hallway to 72 degrees," or see your doorbell feed on your Apple TV while you’re mid-binge. We are finally at a point where this isn't just a pipe dream involving complicated coding or buggy workarounds. It’s actually doable, though there are still a few "gotchas" depending on how old your gear is.
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The Matter Revolution Changed Everything
If you’ve been out of the smart home loop for a minute, you might have missed the arrival of Matter. This is the big one. Matter is a universal communication standard backed by Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung. It’s basically the "universal translator" for smart gadgets.
Because of Matter, many newer Nest devices can now talk directly to HomeKit. This is the cleanest way to add Nest to Apple HomeKit because it doesn't require a middleman. If you have the Nest Thermostat (the 2020 model with the mirrored face, not the old-school circular Learning Thermostat), Google pushed an update that makes it Matter-compatible.
You just grab the pairing code from the Google Home app and scan it into the Apple Home app. Boom. Done. No extra hardware. No monthly subscription. Just a thermostat that finally behaves the way you want it to.
However, there’s a massive catch.
Google hasn't updated the older, "classic" Nest Learning Thermostats or the Nest Protect smoke detectors with Matter support yet. For those, you're still looking at the legacy silos. It's annoying. You’ve spent $250 on a beautiful piece of hardware, and it’s still acting like it’s 2015. For those older devices, we have to look at bridges.
The Starling Home Hub: The Gold Standard
If you talk to any smart home enthusiast who actually lives in the Apple ecosystem, they will tell you about the Starling Home Hub. It’s a tiny little white box, about the size of a box of matches, created by a guy named Adrian Thomas.
It is not an official Google or Apple product.
Normally, that would be a red flag. But the Starling Hub is legendary because it works better than most official integrations. You plug it into your router, you sign into your Google account through its interface, and suddenly every single Nest device you own—cameras, thermostats, locks, even the Nest Protect—shows up in your Apple Home app.
It handles the heavy lifting of translating Google’s APIs into HomeKit’s language.
I’ve seen people try to use Homebridge or HOOBS to save a few bucks, but honestly? Unless you love tinkering with code on a Raspberry Pi at 2 AM because your doorbell stopped ringing, just get the Starling. It supports HomeKit Secure Video, which is the "holy grail" for Nest users. It means your Nest Cam footage gets stored in your iCloud account and uses Apple's local AI to detect people, pets, and packages.
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The DIY Route: Homebridge and Beyond
Some of us like the pain. Or maybe you already have a server running in your basement and you don't want another puck plugged into your router.
Homebridge is a piece of software that acts as a bridge between non-supported devices and HomeKit. You can run it on a Mac, a PC, or a Raspberry Pi. There is a specific "Homebridge Nest" plugin maintained by the community that allows you to add Nest to Apple HomeKit for free. Well, "free" if you don't count the hours of your life spent configuring it.
It’s powerful. You can customize exactly how your devices appear. But it’s brittle. If Google changes their API or Apple updates iOS, your bridge might break until a volunteer developer pushes a fix.
For a thermostat? Sure, go for it. For a security camera or a lock? I’d be wary. You want your front door to work 100% of the time, not 95% of the time when the server hasn't crashed.
Why Do You Even Want This?
You might be wondering if it's worth the hassle. It is.
When you successfully add Nest to Apple HomeKit, you unlock automations that Google simply doesn't handle as elegantly. Imagine this: you leave the house, your iPhone detects you've crossed a geofence, and it automatically turns off the lights, locks the Nest x Yale lock, and drops the temperature on the Nest Thermostat.
Or think about the Apple Watch.
Tapping your wrist to check your camera feed or adjust the AC is infinitely faster than digging out your phone, finding the Google Home app, and waiting for it to load. HomeKit is built into the Control Center of every iPhone. It's just there.
Dealing with the Nest Protect
The Nest Protect is widely considered the best smart smoke detector ever made. It has great sensors, a friendly voice, and it doesn't just scream at you when you burn toast. But Google has been weirdly stubborn about integrating it with anything else.
As of right now, Matter does not support smoke detectors.
This means the only way to get your Nest Protect into HomeKit is through a bridge like Starling or Homebridge. Once it's in there, you can do some pretty cool safety stuff. You can set a "shortcut" so that if smoke is detected, every light in your house turns on and your HVAC system shuts down (to prevent smoke from circulating). That's the kind of stuff that actually justifies the cost of a "smart" home.
Real-World Limitations
Let’s be real for a second.
Even with the best bridge in the world, you aren't getting 100% of the features. For example, if you use a Nest Cam with HomeKit, you might lose some of the specific "familiar face" alerts that are exclusive to the Google Home app. You also might find that the video stream takes an extra second or two to load because it's being transcoded on the fly.
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And then there's the Google account issue.
If you haven't migrated your old Nest account to a Google account yet, you're going to have a bad time. Almost all modern integration methods require a migrated Google account with Two-Factor Authentication enabled. It's a pain, but it's the price of admission in 2026.
Breaking Down Your Options
If you’re looking at your wall right now wondering which path to take, here’s the quick logic:
- New Nest Thermostat (2020 model): Use Matter. It’s free and native.
- Nest Learning Thermostat or older cams: Get a Starling Home Hub. It’s $100, but it saves you $500 worth of headaches.
- Techies and coders: Use Homebridge on a Raspberry Pi.
- The "Wait and See" crowd: Keep waiting for Google to update older hardware with Matter, but don't hold your breath. It might never happen for the older chips.
Setting Up Your Automations
Once you’ve bridged the gap, don't just stop at "Siri, turn it up." Use the power of the Apple Home app.
One of the best "pro tips" is setting up a "Goodnight" scene. You can have your Nest thermostat drop to a cool 68 degrees, lock the doors, and ensure all the Nest Cams are armed. This works across brands. You can have a Lutron light switch, an Eve power plug, and a Nest Thermostat all dancing to the same tune.
It makes the house feel cohesive instead of a collection of gadgets.
Actionable Next Steps
To get started, first identify exactly which Nest models you own. Check the back of your thermostat or the bottom of your cameras for model numbers.
If you have Matter-compatible gear, open the Google Home app, go to the device settings, and look for "Linked Matter apps & services." This will give you the setup code you need for the Apple Home app.
If your gear is older, skip the frustration and order a dedicated bridge. Plug it in, follow the setup wizard, and you’ll see your Nest icons pop up in Apple Home within ten minutes. Finally, go into your Apple Home settings and ensure your HomePod or Apple TV is set as a Home Hub to allow for remote access when you're away from your Wi-Fi.
Stop juggling two different ecosystems. Your smart home should work for you, not make you work for it.