TL;DR
- A rumor suggests Google Nest Hub Max video calls might be disabled.
- We already know about the confirmed removal of Zoom call support, but even Meet calls wouldn’t work.
- We’ve reached out to Google for a statement.
One of the key smart home features of the Google Nest Hub Max is its ability to make video calls. In July of this year, we found out the smart display would no longer support Zoom calls starting at the end of this month. However, it looks like the lone remaining video call service might also be disabled soon.
Inexplicably, users on Reddit are reporting seeing notifications of the removal of Google Meet from the Nest Hub Max (via 9to5Google). Once Zoom leaves, Meet would be the only video chat service on the device. In other words, if Meet leaves the Nest Hub Max, it will no longer be able to make video calls at all.
Obviously, the Nest Hub Max is a years-old product, and the Google Pixel Tablet exists. It’s likely Google is trying to lower the costs of supporting the older hardware and invest more in supporting the new hardware. This would be fine if the Pixel Tablet were a full replacement for the Nest Hub Max, but we know that isn’t true.
If Google kills Google Nest Hub Max video calls, the camera on the front will only have three purposes: supporting Look to Talk (which allows you to initiate a prompt just by looking at the display instead of saying “Hey Google”), playing/pausing music through hand gestures, and acting as a Nest security camera. While these are useful features that make the Nest Hub Max a superior product to the smaller Nest Hub, there are probably a lot of users out there who specifically bought the Hub Max for video calling.
We have reached out to Google for an explanation of this. We will update you if and when the company gets back to us.
