Nest Protect's Wave gesture could silence a smoke alarm during a fire

The Nest Protect was Nest Labs' second product: a smart smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, launched in November 2013 at about $130 with a signature gesture called Nest Wave — wave your hand near the device to silence a false alarm without climbing a ladder. The gesture was the product's headline feature, the thing the marketing showed.

The hazard was in the gesture itself. Activity near the device during a fire could prevent the alarm from sounding when the Nest Wave feature was enabled — the same motion that silenced a false alarm could silence a real one. On May 21, 2014 the CPSC announced recall 14-187 of about 440,000 Nest Protect Smoke + CO Alarms, sold at Best Buy, Home Depot and other retailers nationwide and online from November 15, 2013 to April 3, 2014.

The remedy was a software repair: an automatic electronic update, delivered to devices connected wirelessly to the internet and linked to a Nest account, that disabled the Nest Wave feature entirely. Owners could also choose a refund. Nest had already stopped selling the product in April, and the recall allowed it back on the market within weeks — with its flagship feature deleted.