Following Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 15 and the news that the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will feature Thread Radio, I further investigated how Apple is using this wireless communication protocol in its ecosystem.
Smart home is the obvious and only answer Apple offered half-heartedly (Thread is the main protocol of the component.) But the addition of the low-power, low-bandwidth network-based Thread protocol could also be a signal that the company is no longer relying on Bluetooth to connect peripherals like Apple. Watch. Here are some ways you can use your new wireless connection.
The iPhone may be a thread limit router, but it probably shouldn’t be
Following are the obvious uses of threads on iPhone Thread limiting guide device A range of new Apple Home and Matter-enabled smart home devices from companies like Eve, Nanoleaf and Belkin WeMo. That means you won’t do it the owner To use Thread smart home gadgets with your iPhone, you need a HomePod Mini, Apple TV 4K, or other Thread border router.
Jonathan Hui, Thread Group’s VP of technology and a software engineer at Google, confirmed to me that a smartphone could technically act as a border router for Thread—even if it ran on battery power. (The thread group determines this The border router should always be turned on) “Like any thread device, a smartphone can act as a thread end device, thread extender and/or thread boundary router or thread storage device,” he said.
However, use your iPhone as your only device Thread limiting guide device This would not be a good idea. thread-grainrouter required for connection Subject device, such as smart sensors, locks, blinds and lights, on the Internet and other IP-based smart home networks. If you use your phone to do this, your Thread devices will have problems when you leave the house or your phone battery dies. Similar to what happens when you connect devices to your Apple Home via Bluetooth using your phone, but you don’t have an Apple Home hub.
So while your iPhone can act as an additional border router (a threaded network can have multiple devices, theoretically adding to the reliability of the mesh network), you still need to turn it on for most use cases. Another border router in your home.
iPhone can quickly control smart home devices
Hui also said that the smartphone’s Thread connection will allow it to communicate directly with a Thread device. “Compared to current non-threaded smartphones, a threaded smartphone can communicate directly with a threaded device without relying on a separate threaded border router or other communication technology,” he said.
This is similar to how devices connected to Apple Home via Bluetooth work. However, the advantage of threads is that it is a self-healing mesh network with significantly lower latency than Bluetooth. The most likely short-term benefit would be speed. Even if you have another Apple Thread Border router, Thread on your iPhone lets you directly control Thread devices like lights and locks without going through the Border router first.
As a non-cloud, on-premises protocol, Thread is already very fast, so it probably won’t make much of a difference – unless you live in a really big house. Flossing is designed to use less energy, so there may be some long-term benefits.
Another option with direct control is some type of trigger or presence detection. As soon as you enter, your Thread devices can detect that you are home and respond accordingly. However, presence detection – something that a smart home desperately needs – would be easier to accomplish with the UWB chips already present in most iPhones and HomePods (which is already the case to some extent).
Thread can replace Bluetooth to connect peripherals like your Apple Watch to your iPhone
“Thread has some interesting applications outside of the smart home, where we’re seeing an evolution towards Thread on mobile,” said Daniel Monetta, marketing and product consultant at Samsung SmartThings and former product marketing manager at Google. “In particular, it has the potential to be an alternative to Bluetooth for connecting peripherals to smartphones such as smartwatches, medical devices, fitness equipment and camera accessories.”
The theme is suitable for most smartwatch applications, but not for streaming audio
As an IP-based mesh protocol, when you have multiple “native” devices in the same household (such as an iPad, MacBook, or other family members’ iPhones), Thread can be a more reliable way to connect these multiple devices to your phone. . ) Moneta says its IP feature makes it easy to maintain a continuous data connection directly to the device. Additionally, the mesh structure means that your device does not need to be within range of the controller (iPhone/iPad etc.) for Bluetooth.
This may apply to Apple accessories such as the Apple Watch and third-party devices that use Bluetooth, such as camera accessories and medical devices. Of course, all of this also requires Thread Radio, so that won’t happen anytime soon. Additionally, Thread is currently only available on the two iPhones in the lineup, so accessories made specifically for the iPhone based on Thread will have limited application until the chip is introduced later.
There are also productivity issues. According to Google Home developer resources, the practical throughput limit of Thread devices is approx 125 kbit/sWhile the practical throughput of Bluetooth LE 5.0 This can be up to 10 times.
Thread is suitable for most smartwatch applications, but not for streaming audio (so probably not suitable for AirPods). And there’s no indication that future peripherals can’t have both Thread and Bluetooth (like the iPhone 15 Pro) and use whatever suits their purpose. Finally, many smartwatches have Wi-Fi radios that can be used when out of range of their paired phones.
The problem may just be an extra radio
Popular theory in My X-Feed (formerly Twitter) after Apple events Was this thread present in one form or another as a free offer in the iPhone 15 Pro range? It stands to reason that the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip that Apple uses in its high-end phones offers a sort of three-for-one system: you pay for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and get your string for free!
Case in point: the triple radio chip that NXP announced at CES 2022. If that’s indeed the case, we’ll likely see the thread trickle down through the iPhone lineup, perhaps appearing in the base model iPhone 16 next year — the substance may already be in effect sometime around now. I reached out to Apple for comment on the matter but have not received a response.
The addition of Thread makes the iPhone 15 Pro the smartest smartphone for the home
Given that Apple itself doesn’t seem to have a clear idea or specific examples of what Threads capabilities will add (more than vague). “Unlocking Future Opportunities for Home Application Integration” In the iPhone 15 press release, that seems to be the most likely reason — for now. Apple rarely does anything without a goal in mind, though.
At the very least, the addition of Thread makes the iPhone 15 Pro a smart choice for the home if you’re in the market for a new phone. At least until the Google Pixel event next month. (Note: Threads originally started with Nest, and most Google Nest products use Threads.)
The iPhone’s Thread Radio provides some interesting future-proofing, and as a smart home user who bought the iPhone 14 last year and doesn’t plan to upgrade anytime soon, my plans may change.