Google is reportedly planning a move into home security through Nest, its recent $3.2 billion acquisition that has put a high-tech spin on thermostats and smoke alarms. The company has considered acquiring connected camera startup Dropcam, according to The Information, though it's not clear what stage any talks are at, or if they are still progressing at all.

"Dropcam can do for surveillance cameras what Nest did for the thermostat."

Dropcam's main product is a camera that saves its footage to the cloud, letting users check the recordings any time and anywhere. The startup recently bolstered its security offering with improved video analysis technology and waterproof Tabs, which can detect motion in areas you couldn't place a camera. Last year it announced a $30 million round of venture funding.

An expansion into home security would be in keeping with Nest's mission of rethinking household technology for the 21st century. "Safety shouldn't be annoying," Nest CEO Tony Fadell told The Verge last year when unveiling the Protect smoke detector. "We’re about reinventing unloved categories." That's a mission that Dropcam's investors got behind, with Kleiner Perkins' Trae Vassallo saying last year that "Dropcam can do for surveillance cameras what Nest did for the thermostat."

Apple is set to make its own play for the connected home next month, according to a report in the Financial Times. Cupertino will reportedly offer a platform for third-party vendors to hook into the iPhone, allowing it to control lighting, security systems, and more. Apple is said to consider privacy an advantage over Google, which leverages user data for advertising revenue and recently told the SEC it could serve ads on "refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats" in the future — though it later denied any connection with the Nest acquisition. The iOS smart home software may be announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 2nd.