When Apple announced iOS 18 at the WWDC event on June 10 it confirmed a slew of new features. While Apple Intelligence understandably took most of the headlines, there's one new feature that could be a big quality-of-life improvement for smart lock owners.
The new feature in question is the ability for an iOS 18 iPhone to automatically unlock a smart lock just by being close to it, allowing owners to walk to their door and open it without ever taking their iPhone out of their pocket. That's a solid upgrade, but there's a catch.
While many people might already have a HomeKit smart lock installed, they'll have to buy a new one if they want to take advantage of this feature — no current model has the ultra wideband chip required to make it work.
Security on lock
Multiple smart lock companies confirmed the news to The Verge including Aqara, U-tec, Yale, August, Level, Lockly, and SwitchBot.
"Almost universally, the manufacturers I talked to said they were exploring potentially incorporating the tech, but only U-tec said it had a UWB lock in development," The Verge's Jennifer Pattison Tuohy reports. U-tek apparently said that its next-gen Ultraloq smart lock will support UWB when it arrives towards the end of this year.
As for iOS 18, that's also set to ship to the public later this year. A mid-September launch is expected, right around the same time that Apple announces the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro.
