How to control your Nest Thermostat with your voice

Getting up to change your thermostat or using the Nest app is old-school. Voice commands are where it's at. You can adjust the temperature of your room with just a few words, using various devices, of course.

Google Now

Don't have a smart home hub? No problem. If you use Google's Google Now assistant, setting the Nest up to obey you is simple. 

Head over to the Works with Nest Google page and click Yes, I'm In under the voice command option. Sign in to your Nest account and click Accept. That's all there is to it.

Now, on your trusty phone, tablet or computer, say, "OK, Google." Then, tell it what temperature you would like, for example, "Set the temperature to 70 degrees."

If you have iOS, bad news. Nest isn't compatible with Siri yet. You can download the Google app on iOS, though.

Google Assistant

Google Home ($109.00 at Jet.com)'s assistant works with Nest, too. To set it up, open the Google Home app. Go to Menu > More settings > Home control. In the Devices tab, tap the Add icon. Choose Nest and follow the onscreen instructions to pair Google Home with your Nest. Then, tap Done.

You can use a variety of Nest commands using Google Assistant. Here are a few:

• "Set the temperature to 72."
  
• "Make it warmer/cooler."
  
• "Turn off thermostat."
  
• "Turn on cooling/heating."
  
• "What's the temperature inside?"
  

Alexa

If Amazon's Alexa is your bot of choice, you can use her to voice-control your Nest, too, using the Amazon Echo ($129.95 at B&H Photo-Video), Echo Show ($229.99 at Amazon.com), Tap or Dot or the Fire TV Voice Remote. Go to the Alexa app and click Skills > Smart Home and enable your Nest. Then, tell Alexa, "Discover my devices." When the Nest is set up, you're ready to make a command.

Make sure that when you ask Alexa to change the temperature you use the location that you have set up for the thermostat you want to control. For example, my thermostat is labeled as "hallway," so I have to tell Alexa, "Alexa, change the hallway temperature to 74."

Just don't say "thermostat" unless that's part of the location name. Otherwise, you'll confuse poor Alexa.

By the way, Alexa won't be able to control your Nest if it's in Eco Temperature setting. You'll need to turn that off, first.