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Hackers reviving early Nest thermostats abandoned by Google [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2025-11-26  

That the earliest Nest thermometers are more than a decade old is no excuse: they were evidently well-made enough to still be around and Google could have kept them online indefinitely instead of cutting them off. The discontinued first- and second-gen devices might be revived, however, thanks to fast work by hackers writing open-source firmware.

"Breathing new life into bricked and outdated Nest Generation 1 & 2 thermostats," declares the No Longer Evil website. "Repurpose your old hardware with our custom software and enjoy a beautiful, modern control interface."

It's the work of Cody Kociemba, of the Hack/House project. Here's Techspot's Alfonso Maruccia:

According to the project's GitHub repository, NLE's core component is a custom firmware that modifies critical portions of the original Nest software to eliminate dependence on Google's servers. The modified firmware intercepts Nest's communication layer, rerouting network traffic to a custom server that hosts a replica of the original Nest API painstakingly developed through reverse engineering. As a result, the thermostat believes it is still communicating with the official Nest infrastructure, restoring remote functionality without Google's involvement.

The old Nests are still functional as basic digital thermostats, so users might want to wait a while before risking brickification.

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/11/26/hackers-reviving-early-nest-thermostats-abandoned-by-google.html

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