NEST X YALE LOCK

The lock for a more secure Nest home, inside and out. Combining Yale’s 177 years of experience making the world’s strongest locks with Nest’s industry-leading connected home technology. The result? A lock that’s secure, convenient and connected.

The Nest x Yale Lock is a connected lock designed to work with other Nest products and is controlled via the Nest smartphone app.

• Never worry about keys getting lost, copied or stolen again.
• Create passcodes for friends and family and revoke them anytime.
• Alerts keep you posted on comings and goings and battery level
• Forget to lock the door? No problem. Nest x Yale Lock can lock itself.
• Lock, unlock or check if your door is open from your phone, from anywhere.
• Hands full? Lock the door with a quick tap.
• Works with Nest Secure Alarm System

THE CHALLENGE

Yale’s mission was to develop a Yale communicating deadbolt that was fully integrated into the Nest ecosystem. This would be the first Thread-radio based product developed by Yale and would support the Nest x Yale residential communicating lock.

This project differed from past projects because most of Yale’s radio development has been done independently from any integration partner as they are based on current industry standards, such as Z-Wave and Zigbee.

This integration was highly collaborative because not only were Nest and Yale reimagining and reinventing the user experience and definition of what a connected lock could be but also because the core communications technology in Weave and Thread were being developed and enhanced concurrently with the experience and feature set.

THE PROCESS

By working closely with the Nest ecosystem development team and Silicon Labs (silicon provider for the radio), Yale was able to develop a Thread-based integrated radio and bring to market the first lock to join a production-ready Thread network.

The cross-geographical and -corporate teams started by establishing the basic platform and networking functionality. From there, the teams collaborated intensely to define the Weave ‘traits’ that would come to define the core user experience and definition of the Nest x Yale Lock. Building this Weave application atop the IP-based Thread network was key to realizing a secure and end-to-end robust communication platform between the lock and Nest’s mobile app and cloud services while also effectively managing battery life. The intensely collaborative and iterative process between the distributed teams was supported by a regular cadence of engineering review meetings and extensive use of collaboration tools like Jira.

THE SOLUTION

In partnership with Nest, Yale developed the first Thread-based communicating lock fully integrated as part of the Nest ecosystem and the first “Works with Nest” product controlled using the Nest app.

The lock is “Thread Ready” versus “Build on Thread” certified based on how Nest devices join and leave a Thread network. The lock’s debut was highly receipt, supported by the nearly 300 million impressions generated by pre-launch media coverage and is now available for purchase directly from Nest, Yale and though Nest’s and Yale’s retail partners.

Competitive  Advantage

Thread is unique among competing mesh networks with no single point of failure. This allows the Nest x Yale Lock to connect to any other available border router should its current one become unavailable. With competing technologies, when the controller stops working, remote and mobile access are lost.

This controller- and gateway-free and robust design allows the Nest x Yale Lock to offer differentiators such as remote registration, diagnostics, telemetry, and notifications to users such as lock status or that it is time for a battery replacement.