Aliro jumps into the smart locks game with Matter
Google, Apple, and Samsung are teaming up to bring the Matter open-standard to smart locks. Named Aliro, you can expect to see something in just over a year from now.
It's becoming increasingly popular these days to have a smart lock on your door. No longer do you have to worry about losing or forgetting your keys. Now all you need is a smartphone app or smartwatch to turn that lock.
Now Google, Samsung, and Apple are determined to bring smart locks to the open-standard Matter family. But you won't see anything until early 2025 at the latest.
The effort to make smart locks Matter-compatible is called Aliro. In case any Esperanto learners are reading this, you may know that Aliro means "Access" in that language. This is the sort of thing Google likes doing - giving weird names like this to projects.
The ultimate aim of the Aliro project is to make any lock compatible with any authorized smartphone or smartwatch. No longer would a smart lock be controlled by only one company's devices. With Aliro, you can lock and unlock a door using any device from any company you want.
Even though work began in 2021, Aliro is still only a concept. Nothing concrete exists as yet, and as previously mentioned, don't expect to see anything before 2025. But when it comes to something as important as protecting your door locks, taking their time and getting it right is obviously a lot better than rushing something out which isn't ready yet.
All good things come to those who wait.