Samsung announces an Apple-like home button for Galaxy devices

Sometime next year, Samsung users should get access to the same convenience iPhone users have had for years: the ability to tap their phone or look at a smart door lock to unlock it. No more fumbling with keys or unlocking your phone and opening an app. Your phone becomes your key.

This week Samsung announced that it is introducing the new Aliro Smart Lock standard for Samsung Wallet’s Digital Home Key. This enables tap unlocking and hands-free unlocking for all compatible door locks.

Currently, you can add a digital smart lock key to your Samsung wallet and open it to access lock controls from your phone. With this new feature, you don’t need to unlock your phone or access your wallet to control the door. Simply tap the lock with your phone or smartwatch and it will open.

The tap unlock feature is the same as Apple’s current Home Key feature – just walk up to your door and hold up your watch or phone and the door will unlock. It’s like using Apple Pay at your front door. With this new standard, it won’t just be limited to iPhones and Apple Watches.

“We are adopting the Aliro standard for Samsung’s wallet, with the Digital Home Key coming in 2025,” said Mark Benson, head of Samsung SmartThings US The edge in an interview. He explained how Galaxy device users can use the Digital Home Key in Samsung Wallet to open Aliro-compatible locks with a tap on their phone or watch. “And if they have UWB, you can have the door open automatically,” he added.

With a UWB radio in both the lock and your mobile device, the two can communicate to determine your exact location and unlock the door when you approach from outside the home, allowing for a hands-free experience. Apple announced earlier this year that it would also support hands-free unlocking via UWB on smart locks in Apple Home.

Aliro is a new smart lock standard from the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the organization behind the Matter smart home standard. Like Matter, Aliro is developed by Apple, Google and Samsung together with major lock and chip manufacturers. The first specification is scheduled to be released in 2025 and will support both NFC and UWB protocols. The NFC radio enables tap-to-unlock functionality and UWB enables hands-free unlocking. Crucially, both protocols can work locally between the phone and the lock, eliminating the need for an internet connection.

No smart locks work with the Aliro standard yet because there is no standard to work with. But we’ll probably see them arrive next year. With both Samsung and Apple committing to Aliro, smart lock makers now only need to add support for a single standard to work with digital wallets on iPhones and Galaxy phones. It’s your turn, Google.