We’ve been told that an Internet of Things (IoT) is coming, and our salt shakers will soon be speaking to our light bulbs. But how? There’s no decided way for all of these devices to talk to one another. That was, until this week, when Nest, the smart thermostat company owned by Google, opened its platform to other devices and developers. Now, anyone can design their device to interface with Nest. That means, when your Jawbone Up sees that you’ve woken up in the morning, it can tell Nest to warm your apartment. Or when the Nest sees that you’ve left the house, it can tell your Whirlpool dryer to keep cycling your clothes to keep them wrinkle free. Into the future, countless cause and effect relationships can be built into Nest in this way. Right now, most of the interactions take place between these third-party devices and Nest’s products.