I did. Outright killing the Nest Secure without warning nor compensation was my final straw. Say what you will about Apple, at least they support their products for a reasonable amount of time. I have since removed all Google apps from my phone. I purchased a Starling Home Hub[1] (works great btw) which controls my Nest thermostats, which will not be replaced with a Nest product when Google inevitably kills them too early.
Nest was such a great product and brand, and Google completely fucked it up.
We are in the same boat, my friend. We bought a Nest Secure, Cameras and the Nest Yale Deadbolt because of their connectivity... Then Google randomly axes support for the Secure, instantly nixing the reason why we bought the Deadbolt. The Nest app is also CONSTANTLY bugging us to switch to the Google Home app. I didn't purchase Nest items to use with the Google Home app!
Reasonable amount of time is an understatement I purchased an Apple Airport router probably over ten years ago for my parents and it still works flawlessly to this day and receives security updates despite it being discontinued for five years now. The older version has been discontinued longer and it too still receives iirc.
I wouldn't say there was a definitive final straw. It was more of a death by a thousand cuts. Everything getting shittier and worse over time. Pixel phones originally were great, but I really wanted a great 1st party watch. Pixel Watch finally came out and it was lightyears behind the Apple Watch.
Software integration wise across the entire ecosystem as well. Google has been promising it, but Apple seems to have actually delivered it.
The Nest stuff hurts though. I've invested well over $3k in various Nest devices over the years, and to see what Google has done to the ecosystem is a shame.
Apples “move to ads” is barely noticeable (today)… like Googles product strategy.
But yes they’re moving into ads. It seems to be “over the top” revenue for them, not a core revenue stream like Google. Apple is basically taking any free internet connected endpoint they provide and tossing ads in (news in stock app, App Store, etc?). It’s annoying but it’s nowhere near as invasive or impactful as any other advertising giant (Google, Meta, Amazon, etc). They’re also way less invasive at tracking you - but they’re as equally opaque at telling you.
