Products · Product
Nest
Raised as a usability problem by 67 people on Hacker News over 15 years (2012–2026), in 53 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Auto-learning overwrites manually set temperature scheduleUnreviewed
20122026- Learning feature keeps rewriting schedule to temperatures and times user never set2023-05-09
- Learned temperature changes accumulate unpredictably, forcing hour-long manual cleanup to restore control2023-01-24
- Sets temperature unpredictably, falsely shows away, and gives no confirmation that changes were saved2022-07-21
Setting temperature doesn't turn on heatUnreviewed
20122026- Thermostats are hard to control for the person using them2026-10-25
- Setting the temperature doesn't turn on heat; the thermostat seems to control the user instead2016-02-15
- Thermostat overrides the set temperature with uncomfortable settings the user never requested2016-01-14
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Thermostats are hard to control for the person using them2026-10-25
- Subscription charged after cancellation, tangled with Workspace account, took escalations to fix2026-04-05
- Many notifications to enable eco modes make the home uncomfortable2025-12-26
- Keeps prompting user to switch account to Google, must dismiss it every time2025-12-26
- Home/away detection wrongly thinks the house is empty about five times a day2025-12-26
- Editing the schedule on the device is awkward; the only control is a clicking dial, with no copy and paste2025-11-05
- Older Nest thermostats are effectively unusable after Google shut off their cloud service2025-11-05
- Each software update changed the UI, forcing users to relearn how to operate it2025-09-06
- Terrible interface, with blinking elements that signal edit mode and slow response to input2025-09-05
- Slow loading, can't show all cameras at once, and imprecise slow seeking hinders seeing events2024-12-01
- Self-learning behaviour seems odd and lacks a simple temporary override mode2024-11-21
- UI changed after forced updates, so settings must be relearned at random times2023-09-27
- Learning feature keeps rewriting schedule to temperatures and times user never set2023-05-09
- Touch controls are next to impossible to use and temperature setting is confusing2023-05-09
- UI changes after updates force users to relearn how to operate it2023-05-08
- Couldn't re-subscribe and got opaque 'not working, try later' errors with no clear fix2023-05-07
- Learned temperature changes accumulate unpredictably, forcing hour-long manual cleanup to restore control2023-01-24
- Both thermostats are frustrating; neither handles sequencing multiple HVAC units well2022-12-15
- Users must search online for instructions to operate it after time away2022-12-15
- Schedule-changing interface is too finicky and non-standard to use2022-12-14
- A large useless mode button covers part of the screen2022-12-14
- Wrong speakers respond to commands and cancel requests reach the wrong device2022-11-21
- Cannot display all camera feeds tiled on one screen2022-10-12
- Repeated sign-in prompts that fail with cryptic errors for Workspace accounts2022-08-04
- Updates changed the UI so users had to relearn it and removed manual away mode2022-07-22
- Sets temperature unpredictably, falsely shows away, and gives no confirmation that changes were saved2022-07-21
- App takes forever to refresh, making it slow to use2022-07-21
- Device is laggy and frustrating to use since the Fuchsia update2022-07-16
- App randomly logs out, forcing full login and 2FA when adjusting temperature2022-07-12
- Away detection misfires when phones enter power saving mode, and house overheats2022-05-09
- No way to get alerts only for unfamiliar faces, forcing all-or-nothing notifications2022-05-03
- Devices can't be transferred to other accounts, forcing a hard reset2022-02-17
- Expired detectors chirp loudly at night with no in-app warning and cannot be silenced2022-01-25
- Device runs slowly, apps crash, and the UI often stops responding2021-05-25
- Couldn't find any way to browse repositories to discover projects2020-11-29
- Takes about 10 seconds to show any device information when opened2020-11-17
- Takes 10-15 seconds to load the page to change temperature2020-08-05
- Developer API removed and replacement is read-only, limiting what users can control2020-07-07
- Confusing messages about which Google account to log in with2020-06-09
- Physical interface is infuriating to operate2020-01-20
- Auto-learning constantly overwrites manually set temperature schedule2019-11-05
- Forced to log in through Google account instead of the old Nest account2019-11-01
- Must pair each phone individually with every camera, requiring a ladder2019-10-21
- The app is vaguely described as meh, without a specific usability problem2019-05-10
- Thermostat set-points bounce wildly up and down with no clear cause2018-09-24
- Zone exclusions don't work, so passing car headlights trigger constant false person alerts2018-01-22
- Firmware updates changed the UI, so simple tasks take minutes to rediscover2017-07-15
- App and website need performance and usability improvements2016-07-14
- Can only pick approved time zones, so travelling shows wrong time2016-07-14
- Thermostat design requires wiring that makes installation and maintenance hard and overly complex2016-06-04