Building a smart home is a complicated affair. Some devices need to be hooked up directly to your existing HomeKit hubs, and then some need an extra hub to connect to those hubs. Some devices from the same manufacturer even need different hubs for different products to work and rely on different connection methods to hook it all up. It’s easy to see how complicated it can all get.
Nuki, the smart lock manufacturer, just streamlined the process of getting one of its devices connected to your HomeKit setup — and it’s all thanks to a little thing called Thread.
Matter-compatible smart lock
Nuki’s Smart Locks now connect to a smart home system with Thread rather than WiFi or Bluetooth, for what Nuki calls a connection method “more responsive than Bluetooth, more stable and efficient than Wi-Fi.”
Of course, that’ll leave you thinking — what does all this mean? To put it simply, a Thread device acts as its own router using its own wireless protocol. This means that the lock can connect to any device that accepts that wireless protocol, such as your HomePod or Apple TV. Where before Nuki’s lock needed a Nuki hub to connect to the main hub, this is no longer true, as the fourth generation of Nuki’s locks all support Thread connections, something that not even the best HomeKit door locks can boast.
For Smart Lock Pro, you don’t need to pay any more than the standard purchase price of 285 Euros/$307, but those who purchase or already own the standard smart lock will need to buy “Remote Access via Thread” in Nuki App for 49 Euros/$52 on top of the 169 Euros/$180 asking price. All of Nuki’s products are compatible with Matter as well, which means they’ll work with a massive range of smart home standards. That means HomeKit support, along with SmartThings, Alexa, and more. You can learn more about Nuki’s products and where you can buy them on the Nuki website.
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