I received an email today about the Nest Store carrying partner products. I was very disappointment in the product selection. I had assumed Nest would produce their own door bell. I did not expect them to select Sky bell. I looked at the Ring Pro compared to a Skybell. There is not much of a comparison. The Ring Pro works flawlessly
and has a much larger consumer base.
The also selected Wemo LIFX and Rachio. All weak players in their markets.
Why cant they just go with the stronger players instead of promoting a weak sister.
This is only my opinion, but I have last respect for Nest and I have many of their products (Thermostats, Smoke dectors and dropcams)
These guys are supposed to be a technology company and they don’t seem to be doing much development.
Can’t speak specifically to anything about nest, and of course this forum is for users of SmartThings. And SmartThings also has an official partnership with skybell and not with ring.
Different people like different devices for different reasons. Some community members like ring better, some like Skybell better, some like Kuna.
If I had to guess just from a partnership standpoint, the fact that skybell lets you view video on demand and with ring you didn’t used to be able to do that at all and now I think you can only do it if you’re paying a monthly fee means that skybell may fit better into the feature set that most DIY home automation customers are looking for. The whole point of integrating with a video doorbell is so that you could have different events trigger it and be triggered by it.
So Looked at just on paper, it’s pretty clear that Skybell would be the more attractive Integration partner for an HA system. Being able to trigger the camera to start recording is huge.
All of that said, I have no idea how the two devices compare from an engineering standpoint, I haven’t looked at either closely. But here is some community discussion:
I have a Nest. Personally I think they are a weak player. I’ve had all three versions plus a ton of Nest Protects. I’ve never owned any of their overpriced cameras as I have a real camera system.
No real innovation since the first Nest came out.
I don’t have a smart Doorbell as none of them can integrate with a centralized IP camera system.
Not sure why you would consider LIFX weak, they were likely picked as a strong open partner. (Not that Hue isn’t open).
The Nest store carries both Philips Hue and LIFX. Both are good brands with different features. A lot of people have both.
LIFX is measurably brighter, has better greens, is a little cheaper for the RGB units, and doesn’t require an additional bridge. You can also use echo to change the color of LIFX bulbs, which you currently cannot do with Hue unless you also use IFTTT.
Hue has a better app ecosystem, runs cooler, and physically fits in more existing fixtures. Plus better accessories. And HomeKit integration.
There is a Ring integration coming for ST as you know but Ring have definitely let SkyBell beat them to the punch with ST and Nest integration along with the better IFTTT channel as JD pointed out.
As for Rachio and LIFX being ‘weak’ players, well, that’s just basically rubbish.
You nailed it @JDRoberts. SkyBell HD has bi-directional APIs, which means you can do more with it than Ring. We have Triggers AND Actions at IFTTT, SmartThings and Works with Nest.
SkyBell is leading the way in doorbells. SkyBell HD was named Best Video Doorbell by CNET, WireCutter and Examiner - after extensive comparison testing against our peers. We’re the doorbell of choice for Honeywell Home Security, Alarm.com and Monitronics Security.
