Siri Voice Shortcuts
Thermo Watch has Siri voice shortcuts that allow seamless Siri control of your Nest from your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch or HomePod. It fully supports Apple Watch LTE, and you will be able to use Siri to control your Nest, even when the iPhone is not around.
Using Siri shortcuts you can now control many aspects of your Nest, such as instant activation of heating or cooling, direct setting of your favorite temperatures, increasing/decreasing the temperature, and setting the Home/Away state. Thanks to Thermo Watch, it's all finally just one casual "Hey Siri" away, all with quick and informative visual and verbal feedback. Siri shortcuts require iOS 12 and watchOS 5.
For shortcuts to work, a quick initial setup is required:
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In the iOS version of Thermo Watch app, next to each of your thermostats, on the left you will see three small buttons. Press the button that looks like a Siri circle (circled in yellow on the screen below)
2. This will open a screen that looks like this:
On this screen, you should tap on the shortcuts that you’d like to use, and then choose the phrase to be associated with them. After that, you can invoke Siri at any time, and speak out any of the phrases you defined here - your Nest will respond accordingly.
Currently, there are some limitations to what Siri shortcuts in Thermo Watch can do. Most notably, if you want to set the temperature directly, you have to create the "Set Target Temperature" shortcut and invoke it with Siri. This shortcut will then ask a follow-up question where you should say the temperature you wish to set. You can also set up to three favorite temperatures, and associate phrases with each of them (and repeat that for each thermostat you have).
Another limitation is that these three "Set Favorite Temperature" shortcuts will not work while Nest is in Heat•Cool mode. You will have to leave your thermostat in either Heat mode or Cool mode, for them to work. Also, most shortcuts will not work if Nest is in Off mode. Consider using Eco mode instead. Eco mode generally acts the same as Off mode, with the added benefit of memorizing the mode thermostat was in, prior to going Eco. Thermo Watch can use that information to first switch your Nest into that previous mode, before it adjusts the temperature.
If you don’t want to create a voice phrase, but just to use your shortcuts as part of the workflow in Apple's Shortcuts app, that’s possible as well. Most shortcuts are automatically donated for use with the Shortcuts app, but in case of the "Set Favorite Temperature" shortcuts, you will have to select the desired temperature, and tap the Record Voice Shortcut button, for them to be donated.
If you run into any issues with Siri shortcuts, please contact support.
Shortcut Workflow Actions
Thermo Watch has several special shortcuts that can pass temperatures and humidity values, as well as thermostat operation mode (Heat, Cool, Off) from your Nest into the next action in the shortcuts sequence, and onto iOS clipboard.
These shortcuts should be used as part of the workflow in Apple's Shortcuts app, and the values retrieved by them can be used to modify the execution of subsequent actions in the workflow. This allows you to create powerful and customized functionality that can, for example, start cooling when the humidity becomes too high, regardless of room temperature. The screenshot below shows how to arrange the actions in the Shortcuts app to accomplish this task:
In the following example, the outdoors "Feels Like" temperature is used to calculate the temperature that is then set on your thermostat during summer time:
