Here’s why Apple put a Thread radio in the iPhone 15 Pro
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, a smart home reviewer who's been testing
connected gadgets since 2013.
Following Apple’s iPhone 15 announcement and the news that the iPhone 15
Pro and Pro Max will come with a Thread radio, I did some more digging
into how Apple might deploy this wireless connectivity protocol in its
ecosystem.
The smart home is the obvious answer and the one Apple halfheartedly
offered (Thread is a main protocol for Matter). But adding the
low-power, low-bandwidth, mesh-based Thread protocol could also signal
the company is moving away from relying solely on Bluetooth for
connecting to peripherals like the Apple Watch. Here’s a look at some of
the ways that new wireless connectivity could be put to use.
The iPhone could be a Thread border router, but it probably shouldn’t be
The obvious use for Thread in the iPhone is as a Thread border router
for the slew of new Apple Home and Matter-enabled Thread smart home
devices from companies like Eve, Nanoleaf, and Belkin WeMo. This would
mean you wouldn’t have to have a HomePod Mini, Apple TV 4K, or other
Thread border router to use Thread smart home gadgets with your iPhone.
Jonathan Hui, VP of technology at the Thread Group and a software
engineer at Google, confirmed to me that a smartphone can technically
act as a Thread border router — even when running on battery power. (The
Thread Group specifies that border routers should always be powered).
“Like any Thread device, a smartphone can serve as a Thread end device,
Thread extender, and/or Thread border router or a Thread provisioning
device,” he said.
Zoom
Apple’s HomePod (second-gen) and HomePod Mini are both Apple Home hubs,
Thread border routers, and Matter controllers.
But using your iPhone as your one and only Thread border router would
not be a good idea. A Thread border router is required to connect Thread
devices, such as smart sensors, locks, shades, and lights, to the
internet and to other IP-based smart home networks. If you used your
phone to do this, your Thread devices would run into issues when you
leave home or when your phone runs out of battery. This is similar to
what happens if you connect devices to Apple Home over Bluetooth using
your phone but don’t have an Apple Home hub.
So, while the iPhone could act as an additional border router (a Thread
network can have more than one, which — in theory — helps with
reliability for the mesh network), for most use cases, you would still
need another Thread border router operating in your home.
The iPhone could control Thread smart home devices faster
Hui also says that Thread connectivity in a smartphone will allow it to
communicate directly with a Thread device. “Compared to existing
smartphones without Thread, a smartphone with Thread can communicate
directly with a Thread device, without relying on a separate Thread
border router or any other communication technology,” he said.
Again, this is similar to how devices connected to Apple Home work over
Bluetooth today. But Thread has the advantage of being a self-healing
mesh network with less latency at scale than Bluetooth. The most likely
benefit in the short term will be speed. Even if you have other Apple
Thread border routers, with Thread on your iPhone you’ll be able to
control Thread devices like lights and locks directly without needing to
go through a border router first.
As a local protocol with no cloud dependence, Thread is already very
fast, so this probably won’t make a significant difference — unless you
live in a really big house. Thread is designed to use less power,
though, so there may be some longer-term benefit there.
Another possibility with direct control is some type of trigger or
presence detection. Your Thread devices could know you’re home as soon
as you walk into the house and respond appropriately. However, presence
detection — something the smart home sorely needs — would be easier to
do with the UWB chips already in most iPhones and HomePods (and is
already being done to some extent).
Thread could replace Bluetooth as a way to connect peripherals like the
Apple Watch to your iPhone
“Thread has some interesting applications for outside of the smart home,
as we see movement towards Thread in mobile,” says Daniel Moneta, a
marketing and product consultant for Samsung SmartThings and former
product marketing manager for Google. “In particular, the potential to
be an alternative to Bluetooth for connecting peripherals to
smartphones, such as smart watches, medical and fitness devices, and
camera accessories.”
Thread would be fine for most smartwatch uses but not for audio streaming
As an IP-based mesh protocol, Thread could be a more reliable way to
connect multiple such devices to your phone while also having multiple
“parent” devices within the same home (such as your iPad, MacBook, or
other family member’s iPhones). Its IP characteristic makes it easier to
maintain a persistent data connection directly to the device, says
Moneta. Additionally, Thread being mesh means your device doesn’t have
to be in range of the controller (iPhone/iPad etc.), as it would with
Bluetooth.
Zoom
If Apple added a Thread radio to the Apple Watch, the wireless protocol
could be used to connect it to your iPhone.
This could apply to Apple accessories such as the Apple Watch and
third-party devices that use Bluetooth, like camera accessories and
medical devices. Of course, all of those would need a Thread radio in,
too, so that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Plus, Thread is only on
two iPhones in the line right now, so any Thread-based Made for iPhone
accessories would have limited appeal until the chip rolls out down the
line.
There’s also the matter of throughput. According to Google Home’s
developer resources, Thread devices have a practical throughput limit of
around 125Kbps, whereas Bluetooth LE 5.0’s practical throughput can be
up to 10 times that.
Thread would be fine for most smartwatch uses but not for audio
streaming (so probably not AirPods). And there’s nothing to say future
peripherals couldn’t have both Thread and Bluetooth (as the iPhone 15
Pro does) and use whichever is fit for purpose. After all, many
smartwatches have Wi-Fi radios that they’ll use if they’re out of reach
of their paired phones.
Thread might just be a bonus radio
A popular theory in my X (formerly Twitter) feed after the Apple event
was that Thread is in the iPhone 15 Pro line more or less as a freebie.
It’s plausible that the Wi-Fi / Bluetooth chip Apple is using in its
highest-end phones comes as a sort of three-for-one: you pay for Wi-Fi
and Bluetooth, and you get your Thread for free!
Case in point: this tri-radio chip that NXP announced at CES 2022. If
that’s indeed the case, it’s likely we’ll see Thread trickle down
through the iPhone line slowly, probably showing up next year on the
base-model iPhone 16 — right around the time Matter might actually be
working. I reached out to Apple for comment on this but did not hear back.
The addition of Thread makes the iPhone 15 Pro the most smart
home-friendly smartphone
Given that Apple itself doesn’t seem to have a clear idea or any
concrete examples of what the Thread capabilities will add (beyond a
vague “opening up future opportunities for Home app integrations”
statement in the iPhone 15 press release), this does seem to be the most
likely reason — for now. Although, Apple rarely does anything without
some purpose in mind.
At the very least, the addition of Thread makes the iPhone 15 Pro the
most smart home-friendly option if you’re in the market for a new phone.
At least until Google’s Pixel event next month. (Remember: Thread
essentially began with Nest, and most Google Nest products use Thread.)
The Thread radio in the iPhone adds some intriguing futureproofing, and
as a smart home user who bought an iPhone 14 last year and was not
planning on upgrading anytime soon — my plans may be changing.
The Verge
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