Google just nuked the old Nest forums, and your account is gone

As promised, Google has finally given its smart home community a fresh coat of paint, but longtime Nest users may notice there’s more going on here than just a visual cleanup.

If you’ve been lurking on the official Nest community forums lately, you might have noticed some significant changes. Google just shut down its third-party forum and moved the entire Google Home & Nest Community to its own internal support domain. The move promises a fresh look, but comes with a frustrating catch: your years of community clout are getting erased.

In recent years, Google has outsourced its smart home forums to a third-party service, the same one that used to run the now-defunct Stadia. But the transition is anything but smooth.

First, the bad news: you can’t take your old account with you. For security and privacy reasons Google did not bring over login credentials. You will need to create a new profile from scratch. That also means you’re saying goodbye to your hard earned badges, ranks and status levels. If you have old posts or helpful guides on the previous site you want to save, move quickly as Google intends to permanently delete all old account info and posts on June 30, 2026.

The new layout is structured into 10 specific product silos which will enable you to cut through the noise more effectively than before. Discussions of everything from core hardware like thermostats, cameras and doorbells to speakers and displays are now organized in a logical fashion on the interface. There are also dedicated spaces for connectivity and security, specifically for Wifi, locks and alarms, streamers, along with a new focus on Gemini for Home, app and automations, account and subscriptions, and smart home for developers.

The idea here, according to Google, is to cut back on the conversations and, more importantly, to kill off the spam that often plagues third-party forums.

Google has also hinted that this migration is just the first step towards deeper integration with the Google Home app. If you’re about to turn on a mobile browser to troubleshoot a finicky automation or a Nest Cam that won’t stay online, you may soon be able to jump right into these community discussions in the app itself.

Keep an eye on your other devices as well, because Google is doing the same thing with the Fitbit community on May 19.