Product Library / Security Systems & Alarms

Google Nest Protect (2nd gen)

Compiled by SmartHomeWorkflow Research · Google Nest · Security Systems & Alarms

Compatibility

Protocols: WIFI · BLUETOOTH^[2][5]

What it can do^[11]

Listed capabilities are what we could establish from vendor documentation. An ability missing here is unestablished — not necessarily absent.

Subscription reality

✓ Works without a subscription: Yes.

Vendor account required: Optional — there is a documented way to use it without one.^[12]

No paid plan gates anything on Nest Protect itself. Nest Aware's smoke/CO 'sound detection' is a camera and speaker feature — it listens for an alarm noise and does not involve the Protect.

Maintenance reality

• Batteries: 6× Energizer Ultimate Lithium L91 AA (battery model); 3× L91 AA backup (wired model)
• Works without the internet: Partly — some of it keeps working and some of it does not. See the detail below.^[2]
• Hard 10-year lifespan from the DATE OF MANUFACTURE printed on the unit, forced by the CO sensor and required for certification. At expiry the device chirps continuously, shows a yellow ring at night, and speaks a replacement warning. Local alarming and the peer-to-peer interconnect work without internet; Wi-Fi is needed only for phone notifications, remote status and firmware.

Security updates^[10]

⚠ Google Nest's declared security-update support ran to June 15, 2020 (US-declared — the maker states this commitment for its US market) — that date has passed. It keeps working exactly as it does now, and no security flaw is known or implied here — but the manufacturer no longer has a stated obligation to issue security fixes for it.

⚠ THIS DATE PASSED SIX YEARS AGO AND GOOGLE'S SAME TABLE ROW SAYS THE DEVICE IS STILL BEING PATCHED — both halves are recorded because a reader needs both. Google's connected-home security-updates page lists “Nest Protect” with a release date of 6/15/2015 and a five-year minimum of 6/15/2020, and marks that same row “Yes” under “Currently receiving critical security updates”. What expired in 2020 is Google's stated obligation, not the updates, and on a smoke alarm that distinction is the whole point: the device's own ten-year expiry, already recorded on this record, is the harder deadline. ⊕ Identification: Google's table carries exactly ONE Nest Protect row and its release date of 6/15/2015 matches this record's own recorded first-sold year of 2015, which is what ties the row to the 2nd generation rather than to the 2013 original. ⚠ Stated as a limit rather than smoothed over: Google's UK PSTI Statement of Compliance lists “Nest Protect (A13, A14)” in its Group 2 declaration, and this record's recorded model number is “S3000BWES (battery)” — no first-party source read in this pass maps S3000BWES to A13 or A14, so the declaration is named here as context and was NOT used to identify the model. Google states the figure as a floor rather than an expiry, and the table computes it rather than declaring it: the column is headed “Release date + 5 year minimum”, and the page's commitment reads “Google Nest connected home devices will receive automatic security updates for at least 5 years from the date we start selling them on the US Google Store. Security updates will address critical issues known to Google Nest that are able to be resolved with a remote software update.” ⊕ REGION: US — Google's own commitment is anchored to its US storefront in the sentence this value rests on: 'Google Nest connected home devices will receive automatic security updates for at least 5 years from the date we start selling them on the US Google Store.' The scope comes from the document's own words, not from the fact that we list the US SKU (S-1b).

Who it's for

Existing owners deciding whether to keep a working unit — the answer is that it still works and still gets firmware, until its expiry date. Anyone buying new should look at the First Alert SC5, which Google itself names as the replacement and which interconnects with existing Protects.

Sources & method

Numbered sources below back the facts marked with the matching number above. This is a research profile: compiled from manufacturer documentation, certification registries, and published testing — we state facts, not verdicts, and we have not physically tested this unit. How we work →

1. [1] support.google.com/googlehome/answer/15709068 read 2026-08-13, verbatim: 'Nest Protect is no longer available for sale, but is still supported.' No end-of-service or end-of-support date is published for the device, the app or notifications — so `service: full` stands on a positive vendor statement of continued support rather than on silence, and the hard stop remains the unit's own 10-year expiry. Because Google states the product is not sold, no manufacturer price exists to cite and `priceUSD` stays null. ⊕ The page also names the First Alert SC5 Smart Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm as the compatible alternative US customers can buy through the Google Home app — independent corroboration of this record's existing `supersededBy: first-alert-sc5-smart-smoke-co`, which until now rested on our own judgement. — vendor-support-doc research, verified 2026-08-13
   Backs: Market availability, Service status, Research status, Price
2. [2] support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9229922 'Nest Protect 2nd generation technical specifications' (read 2026-08-09): the 2nd-generation block lists 'Wireless — Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g/n 2.4 GHz · Wireless Interconnect: 802.15.4 at 2.4 GHz · Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)', and separately 'Connectivity requirements — Wi-Fi Internet connection · Nest app · Phone or tablet running iOS or Android with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)'. No statement of the radio's function appears on the page. ⚠ Unverified lead, explicitly not used as evidence: third-party summaries state BLE is required for App Silence and Safety Checkup; support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9245506 returns HTTP 404 and the current 'Requirements for Google Nest and Chromecast devices' article does not contain the claim. — vendor-support-doc research, verified 2026-08-17
   Backs: Protocols, Works without the internet, Required hub or bridge
3. [3] support.google.com/googlehome/answer/15709068 ("no longer available for sale, but is still supported"); support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9249942 (firmware 3.6, March 2025, post-discontinuation); support.google.com/googlehome/answer/15731767 and .../9249296 (10-year replacement from manufacture date; expiry chirp and spoken warning) — vendor-page research, verified 2026-07-19
   Backs: Market availability, Service status, Research status
4. [4] The 2025-03-28 announcement date is reported by tech press only. The Google Nest Community blog was reorganized and the original post could not be located on a Google-owned domain; archive access was unavailable. The FACT of discontinuation is primary-sourced; the date is not, so soldUntil is 'ended' rather than a year. — sourcing gap, recorded honestly, verified 2026-07-19
5. [5] support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9229922 lists Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4 GHz only, 802.15.4 at 2.4 GHz, and Bluetooth LE. The 802.15.4 radio runs Google's proprietary Weave interconnect for Protect-to-Protect messaging — it is neither a Thread endpoint nor a border router, so 'thread' is deliberately not listed in protocols. — vendor-page research, verified 2026-07-19
   Backs: Protocols
6. [6] Counterparty sources per 09 §3: support.google.com/googlehome/answer/9325080 (Alexa-supported set omits Protect); partners.smartthings.com/partners/nest (Camera, Doorbell, Thermostat only); home-assistant.io/integrations/nest plus developers.google.com/nest/device-access/supported-devices (smoke and CO alarms not supported by the SDM API). Root cause across all three: Works with Nest terminated 2023-09-29 (support.google.com/googlehome/answer/9293712). — counterparty-source research, verified 2026-07-19
   Backs: Amazon Alexa compatibility
7. [7] support.google.com/googlehome/answer/15731767 and .../16324143 — Google names the First Alert Smart Smoke & CO Alarm as the compatible replacement and documents cross-interconnect between the two. Supersession recorded in supersededBy. — vendor-page research, verified 2026-07-19
   Backs: Market availability
8. [8] Launch price was $99 at 2nd-gen announcement (blog.google), but the product is no longer sold and the final Google Store price could not be retrieved (client-side rendering; archive unavailable). A stale launch price on a discontinued product would mislead, so priceUSD stays null. — sourcing gap, recorded honestly, verified 2026-07-19
   Backs: Price
9. [9] The 2014 CPSC recall-to-repair (~440,000 units, Nest Wave gesture) covered 1ST GEN units sold 2013-11-15 to 2014-04-03. This record is 2nd gen, which postdates it and is not affected. Recorded so the scope is stated rather than implied. CPSC page returned HTTP 403 on direct fetch; treated as secondary pending re-verification. — regulator-source research (fetch blocked, flagged), verified 2026-07-19
10. [10] Google, “Security updates & security validation results for Google's connected home devices” (support.google.com product-documentation answer 10231940), read 2026-08-19. Table row, verbatim across its four columns (Device | Release date | Release date + 5 year minimum | Currently receiving critical security updates): “Nest Protect | 6/15/2015 | 6/15/2020 | Yes”. Page-level commitment: “Google Nest connected home devices will receive automatic security updates for at least 5 years from the date we start selling them on the US Google Store.” Cross-read against Google's UK PSTI Statement of Compliance at https://support.google.com/product-documentation/answer/14869041 (signed Louise Bohmann, April 8, 2024), whose Group 2 UK Defined Support Period is “At least five years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the US” — the same rule the table applies. — first-party read (BQ-192 security-support sweep, method note 69 source precedence), verified 2026-08-19
    Backs: Security-update support period
11. [11] https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9232413?hl=en — the ecosystem's own integration documentation for this device (read 2026-08-20) — ecosystem integration document, plain fetch, verified 2026-08-20
    Backs: Capabilities
12. [12] support.google.com, 'Set up Nest Protect with the Nest app' (read 2026-08-21). BOTH HALVES OF `optional` COME FROM THIS ONE PAGE. The account half, verbatim from 'What you need to get started': 'Nest Protect / Wi-Fi and internet access in the same location that you're installing your Protect (your home's Wi-Fi network) / Wi-Fi network password / Phone or tablet / Latest version of the Nest or Home app / A Nest or Google account', and step 4: 'Sign in to your account — If you're new, you'll be asked to create an account. Otherwise, sign in if you haven't already.' The NO-ACCOUNT half, verbatim: 'Once you add your Protect to the Nest app or the Home app, you can get alerts on your phone, silence alarms with the app, and more. If you don't add your Protect to the Nest or Home app, it still warns you when it detects smoke and carbon monoxide (CO), but you won't get notifications from the app.' The same page names the generation this record covers, under 'Manage Nest Protect in the Google Home app — What you need … A Nest Protect (2nd gen)'. — vendor-page research, verified 2026-08-21
    Backs: Vendor account required
13. [13] SmartHomeWorkflow record maintenance (BQ-250 securitySupport.region backfill) — internal-review of the document this record already cites, verified 2026-08-27
14. [14] Record-keeping entry: this record's `none` cells were classified under the five-way absence sort, 2026-08-30 — internal, verified 2026-08-30

Compatibility and lifecycle information reflects the last-verified date above and can change without notice (firmware updates, cloud-service changes, discontinuations). It is provided as-is, for information — verify with the manufacturer before purchasing. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it. Full terms: Terms of Service.

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