Eve Announce Plans to Adopt Thread For Lineup

German HomeKit smart device manufacturer Eve, have today announced on their website’s blog that they will be issuing firmware updates to some of their products so as to enable Thread functionality. According to the post, the company state that some of their newest products are in fact already equipped to work with Thread, due to having the Eve Core chipsets, which support Thread.

the timing of this couldn’t be better in some ways, with the Apple Homepod Mini due to start shipping next week, which also has Thread functionality, as well as being a Thread hub. Currently, the only devices available in the HomeKit sphere are the just-released Nanoleaf ‘Essentials’ A19 Colour bulb, and colour Light Strip.

Eve has said that after the required updates, the following devices will work with Thread;

• Eve Aqua (2nd Gen)
• Eve Door & Window (3rd gen)
• Eve Energy (EU, 4th gen)
• Eve Thermo (4th gen)

The company go on to state that firmware updates for Eve Aqua and Eve Thermo are still being worked on.

Bluetooth, which is what Eve has relied on for most of their devices up until the release of the power strip and light strip, will remain in use, as it’s required for ‘HomeKit over Thread’, but will also allow the aforementioned devices to automatically connect to the HomePod Mini without any need for configuration. Eve state the benefits of Thread with the following statement;

Thread is based on the universally deployed Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) standard, making it extremely robust. A Thread network does not rely on a central hub, such as a bridge, so there’s no single point of failure. And Thread has the ability to self-heal – if one node (or accessory in your Thread network) becomes unavailable, the data packets will select an alternate route automatically and the network simply continues to work. And while Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networks tend to become somewhat unreliable and challenging to manage with a large number of accessories connected, a Thread network will scale up easily and actually become more robust with every new accessory.

This really has comes as a welcome surprise, to many, which just goes to show how forward-thinking Eve has been all along. With the HomePod Mini, Nanoleaf Essentials, and now Eve coming onboard with Thread, things are getting quite interesting.