Sleep: Five innovative devices for better sleep – 20 minutes
- Google is launching a new edition of its Nest Hub speaker, a first model of which was marketed 2 years ago.
- Sold for 99 euros instead of 129 euros previously, this smart speaker with screen introduces a Sleep Tracking feature.
- Thus placed on a nightstand, the Nest Hub delivers as 20 minutes found a refined analysis of the quality of our sleep and detects the elements that can disturb it.
We don’t really know in which product category to place the new one Google Nest Hub. The smart screen speaker from the Mountain View firm seems to want to combine the functions: personal assistant, music player, extra TV, connected home hub and now … coach for better sleep! To test this new feature, we put the Nest Hub on our nightstand for 10 days… and slept.
Sleep Tracker Wakes Up
Physically, the Google Nest Hub (2nd generation) looks like its older sibling, launched two years ago. No bigger, it has a 7 ” / 17.78 cm (1024 x 600 pixels) screen. This one is slightly tilted upwards. Three microphones and a loudspeaker allow the classic vocal interactions starting with “OK Google…”. Among the multiple features of the device, the Nest Hub 2021 promises Sleep Tracking. Google’s idea is to offer the user of his device an analysis of the quality of his sleep. This function is deactivated by default on the device and “remains free for the moment”, it is specified at the time of configuration. Obviously, Google has an idea in mind for the future. Thus received, the message also puts us in beta testers …
No on-board camera
Once you have made a few adjustments, simply place the Nest Hub on your bedside, facing slightly towards the person whose sleep is to follow. The device offers relaxing sounds for which you can set the duration to fall asleep, but also a dawn simulator function for the alarm clock: its screen will gradually light up until the scheduled wake-up time.
The light sensor allows the hub to automatically but discreetly display on a black background the time with large numbers during the night, a little “trick” that we find on Amazon’s Echo Show speakers and that we appreciated .
A radar to follow the movements
Please note: if you are not alone in bed, it is obvious that you will not have to change places, the Google Nest Hub can only track a sleeper. Note also: the smart speaker does not include a camera. No chance that your eventual antics will be recorded! On the other hand, the machine has a radar (the Solice movement sensor, already present on the manufacturer’s Pixel 4 smartphone).
Coupled with Google’s MotionSense technology, it detects movement and breathing. The microphones of the hub, they detect coughs and snoring. Other sensors analyze the brightness and temperature of the room. This information will be crossed with the parameters that the user has previously saved, such as their usual times of going to bed and getting up, their objectives for hours of sleep, etc. On arrival, a large grub that allows the Nest Hub to set up each morning , the fairly fine assessment of the past night.
A lot of information when you wake up
“OK Google, how was the quality of my sleep last night?” “. It is 7 o’clock, Paris is waking up, and neither one nor two, the hub drops his verdict. After 10 days of testing, the message concerning us hardly changed any more: “You slept enough and your sleep was calm. You went to bed and got up early, but you slept 7 hours and 32 minutes, ”said the assistant on Thursday morning, April 22. Indeed, we generally sleep quite well and a deep sleep.
To find out more, head to the Google Fit application automatically synchronized on our smartphone. Each night spent under the duvet in front of the Nest Hub screen has left its mark: time in bed sleeping; without sleeping ; sleep efficiency; times of going to bed and getting up in accordance or not with the objectives; sleep disturbances (snoring, coughing, changes in light); and the same respiratory rate. It is complete and obviously quite reliable compared to our feelings. A few comments posted on our actual times of getting up / going to bed (“a little early / on time / too late”) confirm the accuracy of the device.
Unverifiable, tiny snoring periods and coughing sequences are mentioned as disturbances. Points on which it will eventually be possible to act to sleep better. For the moment, the Nest Hub’s analyzes seem reliable and interesting to us, but not yet sufficiently relevant in their interpretation for us to be able to act effectively on the quality of our sleep.
Data that can be erased
The question of these data arises. Google certifies that they will not be exploited for commercial purposes in the context of targeted advertising. We expected no less. In addition, you can turn off Google Nest Hub sleep tracking at any time and erase information collected and saved on the device. However, they go through the cloud, are analyzed and then displayed on our smartphones in the Google Fit application.
Which can also aggregate according to our equipment (activity bracelet, connected watch and scale…) the number of our daily steps, the results of our sports outings, the average of our heart rate, the evolution of our health. Despite its fairly clinical appearance, Google Fit looks a lot like “Activity”, Apple’s health and fitness application, which is visually more pleasant to consult.
Sold for 99 euros (compared to 129 euros for its elder brother), the Google Nest Hub strengthens the arsenal of connected objects dedicated to sleep, such as the Withings Sleep Analyzer, or the UrgoNight headset. We can imagine that the Mountain View firm intends to develop activities in the health sector. Its takeover of the manufacturer of activity bracelets and connected watches Fitbit on January 15, 2021 should add a stone to this edifice. Quickly, a tandem formed by a watch and a hub whose data would cross will make sense. This integration would make it possible to offer hyper-personalized services to help us always better maintain our shape. It remains to be seen at what price.