Imagine walking up to your front door the same way you walk up to your car, you approach and the door automatically unlocks saving you about 3 seconds in time, but allowing you the freedom to enter keyless-ley. I have a Yale Linus L2 on one of my doors and well… it’s what I would class as a “pre-release” version of the lock you want. Its automated opening is reliant mostly on Bluetooth, which is reliant on the app seemingly left open in the background, which is reliant on the weather being perfect and a blue moon being in the sky. Put briefly, the automatic unlocking of the door, is very hit and miss. Especially when I go out for a run and only take my watch.

However, that is hopefully about to change. After three years of development, the Connectivity Standards Alliance has delivered a universal standard for the smart-lock era – the Aliro 1.0 specification. It is, in the words of its architects, “Matter for digital door keys”: an open, cross-platform standard that tells any smartphone how to talk to any smart lock, regardless of who made either of them.

What Aliro Actually Is

Aliro defines how credentials are formatted and how they travel wirelessly between a user’s device and a lock. It mandates support for three complementary radio technologies, each suited to a different scenario:

NFC – Tap to Enter

Near-Field Communication is the foundation. Hold your phone or watch within a few centimetres of the reader and the door opens – identical in feel to a contactless payment. Crucially, NFC works even when a phone’s battery is flat, provided the handset supports power-sharing for NFC (as most modern smartphones do). This ensures access is never completely cut off by a dead battery.

Bluetooth LE – Proximity Awareness

Bluetooth Low Energy handles the longer-range communication layer. As a user approaches, the lock and the phone begin the authentication handshake before the user has even reached the door. On its own, BLE enables a “click-to-unlock” experience; combined with UWB, it becomes something considerably more compelling.

UWB – Hands-Free Intent

Ultra-Wideband is where Aliro earns its most dramatic capability. Using time-of-flight distance measurement and angle-of-arrival calculations, a UWB-equipped lock can pinpoint a device to within centimetres. It knows not just that your phone is nearby, but that you are standing in front of the door, moving towards it from outside – not walking past, not standing behind it indoors. The door opens automatically. No interaction required.

The analogy to Matter is instructive, but the distinction matters. Matter handles smart-home management: status queries, automations, hub integrations – all over IP networks like Wi-Fi or Thread. Aliro handles the authentication: the direct, point-to-point conversation between credential and reader. A well-equipped smart lock in 2026 carries both standards, with Matter for remote control and Aliro for the act of unlocking.

“Aliro is solving the fragmentation that has held back digital key adoption, replacing it with a single interoperability standard built through Alliance Member collaboration.”

Tobin Richardson, President & CEO, Connectivity Standards Alliance

The coalition backing Aliro is formidable. Apple, Google, and Samsung are all committed to native support, meaning Aliro credentials will live in the wallet apps already installed on virtually every smartphone sold today. On the hardware side, the certification cohort includes Allegion, ASSA ABLOY, Aqara, HID, Kwikset, Last Lock, Nuki Home Solutions, NXP Semiconductors, Qorvo, and STMicroelectronics. Over 220 member companies participated in developing Aliro 1.0.

Sounds, great… but… Europe

This all sounds great. Super exciting, but unfortunately I live in Europe – why is that a problem for Aliro’s bright prospects?

It’s a problem, because right now, the standard’s flagship products are fundamentally North American in their design. And European doors, by and large, do not work like North American doors.

Across Europe, the dominant locking mechanism is the Euro profile cylinder: a standardised, double-sided cylinder, inserted horizontally through a multi-point mortise lock case. When you insert a key from either side, the cylinder’s cam rotates and throws the bolt. The cylinder is the security-critical component and it is entirely separate from the handle.

North American residential locks work differently. The deadbolt and handle are typically integrated into a single lock body mounted on the door’s face, with a thumbturn on the inside. This is the form factor for which essentially every high-profile Aliro lock launched to date has been designed: the Aqara U400, the Schlage Sense Pro and the very gorgeous Level Lock Pro. None of these products are compatible with European multi-point door hardware unfortunately.

European consumers who want smart access today typically choose between two imperfect approaches: a retrofit motor (a device that clamps over the existing thumbturn and turns it electromechanically – the Yale Linus L2 I have for example) or a smart cylinder replacement (an electronic cylinder that slots directly into the Euro profile hole). Both approaches have trade-offs, and critically, neither has yet arrived with full Aliro and UWB capabilities.

I’m unsure if/when I’ll be able to have a play. But this is a plea – get the products out quickly as my money is waiting!

Early signs

At ISC West 2026, Last Lock announced Aliro-certified commercial hardware that includes both Mortise and Euro smart cylinder form factors. These products represent the first public demonstration of Aliro-certified hardware designed to function in a Euro-profile door.

Aqara, a brand of which I have a few smart-devices from already, has been building a European product line with its U200 Lite – a Matter-over-Thread retrofit lock designed specifically for Euro mortise doors, complete with a commitment to future Aliro support. The U200 Lite will not initially deliver UWB, but it positions Aqara’s European customer base to receive Aliro credential support when the standard’s NFC features become available in a firmware update, keeping those customers on a roadmap to full compatibility.

At the time I installed my Yale Linus L2, which is actually very similar to the Aqara U200 Lite, only the Aqara U200+ was available. The U200+ required a keypad, which brings me on to my next niggly issue that I have with smart-locks – their appearance from the outside.

The beauty and simplicity of the U200 Lite and Linus L2 locks, are that, from the outside, you’d have no clue of their existence. For me, this is another key desirable in my hunt for an Aliro backed product.

So, the market is about to be standardised – and this is appreciated, but it’s going to be a few years I think before we see anything that meets my personal requirements of an Aliro backed smart lock – which is disappointing.

The standard is ready. The phones are ready. The technology is ready. The only thing Europe is waiting for is the lock.