Samsung is turning your Galaxy phone into a smart door key

At some point next year, Samsung users should be getting access to the same convenience iPhone users have had for years: the ability to tap their phone or watch on a smart door lock to unlock it. No more messing with keys or unlocking your phone and opening an app; your phone becomes your key.

This week, Samsung announced it's adopting the new Aliro smart lock standard for Samsung Wallet's Digital Home Key. This will enable tap-to-unlock and hands-free unlocking for any compatible door locks.

Currently, you can add a digital key for a smart lock to your Samsung wallet and open that to access the lock's control from your phone. With this new function, you won't need to unlock your phone or access the wallet to control the door; just tap your phone or smartwatch on the lock, and it will open.

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

"We're adopting the Aliro standard for Samsung's wallet, with Digital Home Key coming in 2025," Mark Benson, head of Samsung SmartThings US, told The Verge in an interview. He explained how this will allow Galaxy device users to use the Digital Home Key in the Samsung Wallet to open Aliro-compatible locks with a tap of their phone or watch. "And, if they have UWB, you can have the door open automatically," he added.

When there's a UWB radio in both the lock and inside your mobile device, the two can communicate to determine your precise location and unlock the door as you approach from outside the house, enabling a more hands-free experience. Apple announced earlier this year that it will also support hands-free unlocking via UWB on smart locks in Apple Home.

Aliro is a new standard for smart locks from the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the organization behind the smart home standard Matter. As with Matter, Aliro is being developed by Apple, Google, and Samsung, along with major lock and chip manufacturers. The first specification is slated for release in 2025 and will include support for both NFC and UWB protocols. The NFC radio enables the tap-to-unlock feature, and UWB enables the hands-free unlocking. Crucially, both these protocols can work locally between phone and lock, so no internet connection is required.

No smart locks work with the Aliro standard yet, as there isn't a standard to work with. But we'll likely see them start to arrive next year. With both Samsung and Apple committing to Aliro, smart lock manufacturers will only need to add support for a single standard to work with digital wallets on iPhones and Galaxy phones. Your move, Google.