A doorbell, smart lock, thermostat and cameras are on the way, sold under LG's name but made to work closely with Apple's next home hub.
Apple has teamed up with LG to make a set of smart home gadgets, Bloomberg reports. The list includes a video doorbell, a smart lock, a thermostat, a temperature sensor and three security cameras.
Here's the twist: they'll carry LG's name, not Apple's. Apple helped design them, while LG builds, sells and supports them. Most are expected to support Matter, so they should also work with other smart home systems, and the lock may unlock by itself as your iPhone gets close.
Don't expect them soon. Apple's own home hub arrives first, and the LG gear is at least a few months away. Prices haven't been announced.
Apple has been working with LG on a family of smart home gadgets, including a video doorbell, a smart lock and a thermostat, according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The twist is that you won’t see an Apple logo on any of them. They’ll be sold as LG products.
The news lands just days before Apple is expected to show off its own smart home hub, a small screen for controlling lights, locks and other connected devices, at an event on 13 October. The LG gear appears designed to fill out the rest of the home around that hub.
LG has already filed paperwork with US regulators, including the Federal Communications Commission and the testing company UL Solutions. Those filings list seven products:
LG asked regulators to keep photos and detailed specs private until early next year, and the filings themselves don’t mention Apple at all. The link between the two companies comes from Bloomberg’s sources.
Bloomberg describes this as a “second-party” arrangement. Apple helps design the products and shape their features, while LG builds them, sells them and handles support when something goes wrong.
For Apple, that is a shortcut. Making and supporting a long list of doorbells, cameras and thermostats is expensive and slow. Letting a partner carry that load means Apple can grow its smart home system quickly without turning into a hardware store. For LG, best known for TVs, fridges and washing machines, it is a chance to move into a market it has mostly stayed out of.
The two companies already have history. LG makes the display panels inside Apple’s Studio Display monitors, and its smart TVs run Apple apps.
This is the part most people will care about. Many of the devices are expected to support Matter and Thread, two newer industry standards that let smart home products from different brands talk to each other. In plain terms, a Matter-compatible lock should work with an iPhone, but it shouldn’t trap you in Apple’s world if you also use Google or Amazon devices at home.
The smart lock reportedly also includes ultra-wideband, the same short-range radio tech an iPhone uses to find AirTags. That could let your door unlock automatically as you walk up to it with your phone, without you having to tap anything.
Bloomberg says this is part of what it calls a “formal reboot” of HomeKit, Apple’s system for controlling smart home devices, which has been slow to catch on compared with Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home.
A doorbell, security cameras and a floodlight camera put this lineup in direct competition with Amazon’s Ring and Google’s Nest, which dominate home security gadgets today. Apple has generally pitched itself as the more privacy-focused option, and Bloomberg has previously reported that the company is working on a privacy-centred home monitoring device and an in-home security service of its own.
Not soon. Apple’s own hub, an updated Apple TV and a new HomePod mini are expected to be announced first. According to Bloomberg, the LG accessories won’t reach customers for at least a few more months, and neither company has confirmed prices.
No. Bloomberg says they will be sold under the LG name, even though Apple helped develop them.
Probably not. Support for Matter should mean they also work with other smart home systems, though features like automatic unlocking are likely to need an iPhone.
You're reading the quick version.
Ring’s first smart lock includes a built-in hand crank to power up the lock if the battery dies, plus new cameras in the lineup.
Early details surface about Google’s next fitness tracker, including price in Europe and the UK, battery life, and health sensors.
Google-partnered Xreal Aura glasses start preorder at $1,279, with two RAM/storage configs and a tethered puck for Android XR compute.
