Four people Android devices they were able to open their cars with their phones years now. But when it comes to the front door of your house, it’s not that easy. You still need a smart lock with a dedicated app or iPhone with Apple Home Key. Now, Samsung is taking its digital key software into the wild with Digital Home Key, an additional feature in the Samsung Wallet app that will unlock your front door to compatible smart locks.
According to Samsung, its Digital Home Key experience will be powered by Aliro, a smart home protocol running on Matter designed specifically for smart locks and digital keys. Aliro 1.0 was only launched on Feb. 26, so Samsung’s Digital Home Key is the first digital home key to support the new standard. Apple and Google are also committed to supporting the standard going forward.
Samsung says the Digital Home Key is stored on the device and protected by Samsung Knox.
You will be able to set up a key supported by Aliro and add a digital key to your Samsung Wallet. When you approach the door, you will be able to open the lock with a dedicated app by tapping your phone on the lock using NFC, or automatically using ultrawideband, which does not require tapping. The options will be configurable in the dedicated lock app.
The rollout started last week for Samsung Wallet on more than a dozen devices, including all Samsung Galaxy S models from the Galaxy S21 onwards, four A-series models and the Xcover 7 Pro. The first iteration of the feature only supports NFC, and Samsung says UWB support will begin in April for compatible devices.
What is Aliro?
Samsung adding digital house keys to Samsung Wallet is the headline news, but the potential long-term win for consumers is Aliro. The reason Apple Home Key is so cool is that it just works. You don’t need a dedicated app or anything complicated. The information is stored directly on your iPhone, and the lock recognizes it as the correct key. The problem is that it only works with an iPhone and a lock set to support Apple Home Key.
Aliro addresses these issues by using an open source standard. Once available, it will work with phones and locks from manufacturers that use the Aliro specification. It was developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the same group that oversees it Important again Series.
Tobin Richardson, president and CEO of CSA, says this should be the standard that makes digital keys more accessible to people.
“By connecting the access control industry directly to the leading wallet ecosystem, it delivers a secure, frictionless experience that goes beyond the front door,” Richardson said in a statement. “A lower level of integration means faster innovation and shorter time to market. This is how the future of access control is being built.”
Read more: Your Smart Lock Buying Guide: Choose the Best Lock for Your Door
As with all standards, some people may be curious about how it works. Similar to Thread. Devices built on Matter have to talk to each other somehow, and that means they have to do it through a connection of some kind. Some smart home gadgets use Wi-Fi for this, which is fine for small amounts, but it’s not the most secure way to transfer data and can clog up the home router quickly when multiple devices are sharing it.
Wire is a network protocol that allows Matter devices to communicate securely without using Wi-Fi bandwidth, and Aliro is very similar but only works between door locks and digital keys on smartphones. Since it doesn’t require an internet connection to run, it can be used anywhere, and CSA uses asymmetric cryptography to keep ne’er-do-wells out.
Samsung seems to be the first big name to support the standard with a real product on the market, so there is no way to use this technology yet. The first such devices are expected from Samsung’s partners, including Aqara, Schlage, Ultralok and Nuki, in the coming months.
