Google kills Nest smartwatch app because nobody was using it anyway

Google has confirmed it's scrapped its Nest app for the Apple Watch and Wear OS smartwatches, citing lack of interest as the reason.

All mention of the smartwatch app has disappeared from Apple's App Store, and should you load the app on Wear OS it will tell you it's no longer available, and advise you to uninstall it.

Read this: The best Wear OS apps

As it turns out, smart thermostats are already smart enough without needing a smartwatch app. When we contacted Google for comment, it pointed us at a post on Nest's community page, where the company confirms it has stopped supporting the app due to so few people actually using it.

"We took a look at Nest app users on smartwatches and found that only a small number of people were using it," reads the post. "Moving forward our team will spend more time focusing on delivering high quality experiences through mobile apps and voice interactions."

If you're using an Apple Watch you'll still get notifications from Nest on your wrist, but you won't be able to actually make adjustments to the thermostat. Google also reminds us that Wear OS smartwatch users can also still use the Google Assistant to talk to your Nest thermostat that way.

Otherwise it's a case of reaching for your phone - or talking to your smart speaker instead to take control.

It's another example of apps struggling to take hold on smartwatches, as users gravitate towards integrated features instead. Google's been steadily peeling away Apple Watch support too, starting with Maps and now leaving Google Keep as the company's only app on Apple's wearable.

And that's probably ok, because aside from a small handful of exceptions most of the best features in wearables right now are the ones that are baked in. Google promises to keep building "helpful experiences" in the future, and who knows what may happen down the line with Nest now fully rolled into Google? But for the time being, no more Nest on your wrist.