Samsung smartphones will, from next year, be able to unlock smart locks with just a tap – or not even that, by going hands-free using UWB. The tap to unlock functionality will use NFC instead, as you may have expected.
Samsung users will thus become on par with iPhone owners, who have had the ability to unlock smart locks in a fiddle-free way already. Samsung will support the new Aliro smart lock standard and add it to its Wallet’s Digital Home Key.
When that happens, tap to unlock and hands-free unlocking will become a reality, and both of these can work locally between your phone and lock, with no internet connection required. What’s more, you won’t even have to unlock your phone in order to unlock your lock.
Of course, hands-free unlocking via UWB will only work if your Samsung phone supports UWB, and the list of those that do isn’t very big. Basically, the book-style foldables from the past few years, along with the + and Ultra models of its flagship Galaxy S line.
Maybe with the creation of this standard more phones will add UWB support? We’ll have to wait and see. The Aliro standard is developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the same organization behind the smart home standard Matter. Like with Matter, Aliro is being worked on by Apple, Google, Samsung, as well as major lock and chip makers. The first specification of the standard is expected to be released next year, at which point Samsung devices will start supporting it. And also next year the first smart locks with Aliro support should show up.
