Level adds a Wi-Fi bridge for its smart locks, but still no support for Matter-over-Thread

On October 16th, smart lock maker Level announced a new Wi-Fi bridge for its locks to enable “remote access and integrations with smart home technology platforms,” including Amazon Alexa and Google Home. Welcome to 2015, Level.

Let’s back up. In November 2022, Level revealed that all its locks had Thread-capable radios, were compatible with Matter, and that they would soon be updated to support the standard. That hasn’t happened yet. Instead, Level has released the Level Connect, a $79 Wi-Fi bridge that plugs into an outlet and acts as a bridge between its lock’s Bluetooth radio and your internet router, so it can be controlled remotely and work with cloud-enabled smart home platforms.

The Wi-Fi bridge was developed for the earliest smart locks (the August Lock got one in 2015) as a band-aid solution to the power-sucking effects of Wi-Fi on a smart lock’s battery. (Changing the batteries in your door locks every couple of months is not fun.) The bridge has since largely been abandoned by most manufacturers because it adds confusion, complexity, and price. No one wants a single-purpose Wi-Fi bridge taking up an outlet in their house when there are other, better solutions out there. Thread seems like one of those solutions, especially for a battery-powered device like a smart lock.

So, this move puzzled me at first. Level’s pitch is simplicity, a smart lock that doesn’t look like a smart lock. All the lock’s tech is packed inside the deadbolt, not plugged into an outlet. And they have the tech they need for Matter and Thread in there already.

Adding Matter-over-Thread to its locks would also enable remote access and interoperability with more smart home platforms for Level (it currently only works with Apple Home and Ring through Amazon Sidewalk). Plus, Thread has advantages such as lower power consumption and increased range (it’s a mesh network), and Matter works entirely locally, so there’s no cloud dependency.

So, why is Level resorting to the old ways with a Wi-Fi bridge when it could implement Matter and Thread? When I asked Level co-founder and CTO Ken Goto about releasing the Connect rather than the promised support for Matter and Thread, he said, “Wi-Fi enablement was an important request from our customers for remote access and integrations with smart home technology platforms. We are still investigating solutions of Matter-over-Thread, and we will make sure to get in touch once we know what adoption looks like for Level.”

(Update: After this article was first published, Goto confirmed further details. “We are indeed working on a specific Matter release for 2024. That being said, Matter is a developing platform, and while we will indeed support it, we will do so in a way that we feel delivers the best possible user experience … In the interim, we are bringing a real-time Level experience to the market by supporting WiFi via Level Connect,” he said.)

Reading between the lines here, it appears that Level, like other smart lock manufacturers Schlage and Yale, might see Matter and Thread as still under-baked and over-complicated to unleash on its customers just yet.

Adding Thread to Level would allow for out-of-home control through a Thread border router, but compatibility across border routers is messy. Level would have to make sure customers connected to the right Thread border router and not another one somewhere in their home. While Matter would allow support for multiple platforms, Level’s customers would also need a Matter controller from the right platform for it to work.

Factoring in all of these complications and opportunities for confusion, you can see why offering a $79 Wi-Fi bridge seemed like the easier option, even in 2023. “Level Connect … allows Level Lock to support real-time access and remote operation with expanded platform support for current generations of Google Home and Amazon Alexa,” said Goto. “Matter over Thread is an exciting convergence and promises to open the interoperability for devices across different ecosystems.” But where Matter and Thread have woefully overpromised and underdelivered is not in the technology but in the simplicity. The new smart home standard is supposed to make buying, setting up, and using smart home products easier. So far, it’s zero for three.

Update October 23rd, 11:30AM: Added additional responses from Level confirming it plans to add Matter support to its locks in 2024 and adding more context around why it launched a Connect module now.