But no one who has watched Google struggle with the hardware business in recent years could really believe it would just be shelling out for thermostats and smoke detectors, no matter how smart Nest’s reinventions of those devices might be. Though Google says Nest will retain its own identity as a company, the partnership’s potential sets up some seriously great expectations of an entire world populated with Google-powered smart devices.

“Both companies believe in letting the technology do the hard work behind the scenes so that people can get on with their lives,” Nest CEO Tony Fadell told WIRED in an interview just after the deal was announced.

“Our roadmap furthered letting tech do the hard work,” he said. “(Google) said, can you do this more quickly?”