Whereas iOS 18 can routinely unlock HomeKit-capable good locks, you may want to purchase a brand new one to benefit from the cool new function

Apple

Whereas iOS 18 can routinely unlock HomeKit-capable good locks, you may want to purchase a brand new one to benefit from the cool new function

florenc85

19/06/2024

When Apple introduced iOS 18 on the WWDC occasion on June 10 it confirmed a slew of recent options. Whereas Apple Intelligence understandably took a lot of the headlines, there’s one new function that might be an enormous quality-of-life enchancment for good lock house owners.

The brand new function in query is the flexibility for an iOS 18 iPhone to routinely unlock a sensible lock simply by being near it, permitting house owners to stroll to their door and open it with out ever taking their iPhone out of their pocket. That is a stable improve, however there is a catch.

Whereas many individuals would possibly have already got a HomeKit good lock put in, they’re going to have to purchase a brand new one in the event that they wish to reap the benefits of this function — no present mannequin has the extremely wideband chip required to make it work.

Safety on lock

A number of good lock firms confirmed the information to The Verge together with Aqara, U-tec, Yale, August, Degree, Lockly, and SwitchBot.

“Virtually universally, the producers I talked to mentioned they had been exploring probably incorporating the tech, however solely U-tec mentioned it had a UWB lock in growth,” The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy studies. U-tek apparently mentioned that its next-gen Ultraloq good lock will assist UWB when it arrives in the direction of the tip of this yr.

As for iOS 18, that is additionally set to ship to the general public later this yr. A mid-September launch is predicted, proper across the identical time that Apple pronounces the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Professional.

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