This smart lock is the first with Matter-over-Thread baked in

After tease him For over a year, Austrian smart lock manufacturer Nuki has been launching its Matter-over-Thread smart lock. THE Nuki smart lock This is the company’s fourth generation of retrofit smart locks for European-style doors and the first designed from the ground up to work with the new smart home standard. “We are the first smart lock in the world to fully integrate Matter into the product. No bridges or modules are required and parallel use with manufacturers’ applications is possible without limits,” said Jürgen Pansy, Chief Innovation Officer, in a press release.

As with previous models, the Nuki Smart Lock (4th generation) comes in two versions: a €169 (around $181) standard model that requires a separate bridge to connect to Wi-Fi, and a Pro version with hardware and better Wi-Fi. Built-in Fi for €279 (around $299). The Nuki lock is available from Tuesday November 14 in the Nuki online store and on Amazon from November 15. It is only available for purchase in Europe but can be shipped to the United States.

The addition of Thread support, an IP-based mesh networking protocol specifically designed for smart home devices, provides longer battery life, increased reliability over Wi-Fi, and faster speed over Bluetooth. The batteries are expected to last 30% longer than previous models, up to six months, said Martin Pansy, CEO and co-founder of Nuki, in an interview with The edge before launch. Matter will facilitate integration into smart home systems, he says, and enable fully local control of the lock across all platforms.

Matter-over-Thread provides the ability to connect to the lock remotely without using the Wi-Fi connection via a Matter Controller with Thread. At launch, this will be enabled on the Pro Lock using any Apple Home or Google Home Matter controller, with support for Amazon Alexa and Samsung SmartThings controllers coming soon. The standard lock will initially require a one-time fee of €39 ($42) to enable support for remote access via Thread.

Pansy, who launched Nuki with her brother Jürgen in 2014, says Wi-Fi support is being kept in locks because “the material is not yet at the point where we can say we can fully rely on it, so it’s an additional option.”

Both versions will still support direct integrations with Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and platforms like Home assistant and Home Bridge, alongside Matter. Pansy says Nuki doesn’t need a user account to configure and install the lock, and the company also offers a local API.

This is the first Matter smart lock for European locks. THE three more Matter-compatible smart locks available today are designed for American style deadbolts: the Yale Assur SL, which also works on Thread but requires a swappable module; and Zigbee based system Locking the SwitchBot And the Aqara U100both of which require a compatible bridge to work in Matter.

Previous generation Nuki locks will not be upgraded to support Matter, Pansy explains, due to technical limitations. No Nuki locks or European smart locks currently work with Apple Home Key. Pansy says their locks are currently not compatible because “they don’t meet the requirements.” He declined to give further details, but said they were working on integration.

The design of the fourth-generation Nuki remains the same on the outside, but Pansy says the interior electronics have been completely reworked. It’s still available in black or white and has an auto-unlock feature similar to that found on August and Yale Locks, which uses a GPS/Wi-Fi/BLE combination to unlock your door as you approach. The lock can also be controlled via the Nuki smartphone app via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

Pansy says the locks will launch with Matter 1.1 and will be upgraded to Question 1.2 early 2024. This will enable free remote access on the standard version and add the new functionality in Matter 1.2 specially designed to support European door locks distinguishing between “Open the door” (including pulling the latch) and “Unlock”.

Alongside the new locks, Nuki is launching a Pro version of its fingerprint keyboard accessory. The Keyboard 2 Pro (€349) adds a stainless steel front and wall bracket. Both Matter-enabled smart locks are compatible with the new keypad. Nuki also sells a €79 keyboard without fingerprint, a door sensor, additional rechargeable batteries and a key fob.

Although the lock can be shipped to the United States if you have a compatible door, there are currently no Nuki models that work with American-style deadbolts. Pansy says the company is exploring the possibility of developing a lock for the American market.

Nuki also participates in the new Aliro Access Control Standard announced last week by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the group behind Matter. “I think it’s a great initiative,” says Pansy. “Our vision has always been to get rid of physical keys and make digital keys more ubiquitous. The best possible integration with mobile devices will help convey the idea of ​​digital keys. We look forward to this future.

Correction: Tuesday November 14, 5:15 p.m.: A previous version of this article named the product Nuki Smart Lock 4.0; the name is Nuki Smart Lock (4th generation).