Eufy has announced a trio of new smart locks, all with Matter compatibility and suitable for different types of door. This is great news, but we have questions, mainly about their support for the Aliro standard.
Smart locks are one of the most important bridgeheads to smart home acceptance. An increasing number are coming with Matter support, but that is only part of the story. In short, they need Aliro support as well, to safely and securely handle credentials, whether physical or via a wireless signal from a phone or wearable.
So, do the Eufy FamiLock E40, FamiLock E35, and FamiLock E32 have Aliro support?
eufy FamiLock E35
A smart lock focused on biometric security, using palm vein recognition and Matter compatibility without incorporating cameras or doorbell functions.
eufy FamiLock E40
A premium all-in-one smart lock that combines facial recognition, video doorbell, and security camera functionality into a single Matter-compatible device.
eufy FamiLock E32
A conventional smart deadbolt that emphasizes Matter over Thread connectivity, fingerprint access, and broad smart home compatibility.
Remind me, what is Aliro?
Established by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (the same collaboration of top industry companies that oversee Matter), Aliro is a common standard for smart locks, and is intended to provide secure communication over NFC, Bluetooth Low Energy, and Ultra-Wideband. So, while Matter handles smart home integration, Aliro handles the complicated task of authenticating credentials.
This video explains it further:
It is, therefore, important that new smart locks have support for Aliro. As a new standard, it is going to be increasingly in-demand, and new locks could be dead on arrival if they don’t have Aliro installed, or are designed to work with it following a firmware update.
The new Eufy FamiLock locks
Eufy’s new smart locks in the FamiLock range are designed for separate purposes and budgets
Eufy FamiLock E32: The “basic” option has fingerprint recognition and keypad access, but you can also use a physical key. It is powered by eight AA batteries and as well as app-based remote control, has support for Thread.
Eufy FamiLock E35: Designed for palm unlocking, it uses palm vein recognition and has a 10,000mAh and a 750mAh backup battery built into the unit.
Eufy FamiLock E40: This smart lock features a keypad, video doorbell, and security camera (2K, with 135-degree field of view) and is equipped with both a 15,000mAh and a backup 800mAh battery.
So, these smart locks are Matter-certified, but what about Aliro?
Do these Eufy locks have Aliro support?
As you will have gathered, Aliro support is pretty important for smart locks.
To find out, we asked Eufy, who told us that in future, all smart locks will support Aliro. From this, we can discern that the new locks don’t support Aliro yet. Here’s what the Aliro representative told us:
Broadly speaking, all future smart locks will support the Aliro protocol. This is because Aliro significantly enhances the unlocking experience, mainly in the following ways:
By integrating with Apple Home via Aliro, we can enable Apple Home Key unlock — a feature that is in high demand, especially among Apple users.
Similarly, Aliro integration with Android devices (such as Samsung phones) will also allow for convenient unlocking via Android phones.
This represents a meaningful upgrade to our product functionality, so we plan to roll out Aliro support across all our smart locks going forward.
So, out of the box, the Eufy FamiLock E40, FamiLock E35, and FamiLock E32 will not have Aliro support. But that isn’t to say they never will.
You can buy these new smart locks via the Eufy website.
(Via HomeKit News; Eufy)
