It's official, a Nest security camera is heading your way

We heard rumblings that a "Nest Cam" would be the smart home brand's next hardware play, but it was officially confirmed today at Nest's press conference.

The Nest Cam is available today for $200 in the US on Nest.com and on Amazon.com, as well as in stores like Best Buy, Target, Home Depot and Lowes. It will be available in the UK in July for £159 direct from Nest and retailers including John Lewis and Currys, and internationally this summer (Nest doesn't sell directly in Australia but the UK price converts to $AU325).

Nest bought Dropcam last June and today's security camera announcement is a clear push to fully merge their hardware. Not only does the Nest Cam look like the Dropcam Pro, but at $200, it's priced the same too. Not surprisingly, a Nest representative confirmed that the Nest Cam will replace the Dropcam Pro (although existing Dropcam Pro users can still use the new Nest app to access their live feeds and other features).

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Moving on to features, the Nest Cam will have a full 1080p video resolution (twice as many pixels as its predecessor), eight built-in infrared LEDs for night vision mode, as well as standard motion and sound alerts. It features a zinc alloy stand (for improved durability, according to Nest) and a magnetic base so you can snap the camera to a variety of surfaces for a hassle-free installation.

Nest Aware will act as the brand's new cloud subscription service with 10- and 30-day options for $10 and $30 or £8 and £24 per month -- that's the same price as Dropcam's original Cloud Video Recording (CVR) service.

Nest also announced a total revamp of its app at this event, which is available today. It has a consolidated view so users can access their camera, thermostat and smoke and carbon monoxide detector -- all in one place. For folks with multiple Nest devices, that should offer a clear usability upgrade.

As far as third-party integrations go, though, Nest hasn't yet opened up the Nest Cam's software to developers. That means that you won't be able enjoy any Works with Nest integrations right away, but these are all supposedly upcoming. Nest also left out any specifics about integrations with its parent company, Google and the Brillo Internet of Things operating system that it announced in May, although Greg Hu a product manager at Nest did say that there would be more to share on that front "soon."

We hope to get our hands on a Nest Cam shortly to test this thing out in-depth. Stay tuned.