After teasing it for over a year, Austrian smart lock maker Nuki has launched its Matter-over-Thread smart lock. The Nuki Smart Lock 4.0 is the company’s fourth generation of its retrofit smart lock for European-style doors and is the first built from the ground up to work with the new smart home standard. “We are the world’s first smart lock to fully integrate Matter into the product. No bridge or module is required, and parallel use with manufacturers’ apps is possible without limitations,” Chief Innovation Officer Jürgen Pansy said in a press release.
As with previous models, the Nuki Smart Lock 4.0 comes in two versions: a standard €169 (about $181) model that requires a separate bridge to connect to Wi-Fi and a Pro version with higher quality materials and Wi-Fi built-in for €279 (about $299). The Nuki lock is available starting Tuesday, November 14th, at Nuki’s online store and on Amazon starting November 15th. It’s only available to purchase in Europe but can be shipped to the US.
The addition of Thread support, an IP-based, mesh networking protocol specifically designed for smart home devices, brings longer battery life, increased reliability over Wi-Fi, and faster speed over Bluetooth. Batteries should last 30 percent longer compared to prior models, up to six months, Nuki CEO and co-founder Martin Pansy said in an interview with The Verge ahead of the launch. Matter will bring easier integration into smart home systems, he says, and allows for fully local control of the lock on all platforms.
Matter-over-Thread brings the option of connecting 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 controllers, with support for Amazon Alexa and Samsung SmartThings controllers coming soon. The standard lock will initially require a one-time €39 ($42) charge to enable support for remote access via Thread.
Pansy, who launched Nuki with his brother Jürgen in 2014, says they are keeping support for Wi-Fi in the locks because “Matter is not yet at the level that we can say we 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 such as Home Assistant and Home Bridge, alongside Matter. Pansy says Nuki doesn’t require a user account to set up and install the lock, and the company also offers a local API.
This is the first Matter smart lock for European locks. The three other…