Eve has released the second generation of its motion sensor, and it’s the first standalone motion sensor to use the Thread protocol, meaning it’s compliant with the new Matter standard for smart homes.
If you’re not familiar, Matter aims to ensure interoperability between smart home brands, allowing their devices to work through Apple Homekit, Google Home , Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings. Matter isn’t fully released yet, it’s coming later this year, but if you want a full rundown of how it works, you should check out our in-depth article. For now, the Eve Motion will work with Apple Homekit and can be used to activate all kinds of automations, such as activating lights when someone enters a room or notifying a possible intruder.
It works both indoors and outdoors, thanks to IPX3 water resistance, and is powered by two AAA batteries for added convenience.
When Matter finally arrives, Eve’s Thread-based products will receive updates to support Matter, allowing them to interface with all major smart home ecosystems. But this is not the only advantage of the Thread protocol, it should also mean that the new Eve Motion is much faster than its predecessor, which relied solely on Bluetooth. Thread products communicate over a mesh network, and don’t rely on a hub, so you should see lower latency and faster response times when switching to a Thread-based sensor. Eve has fully embraced Thread and this is her 14th product using the protocol, and we hope that more are on the way.
There’s more good news: the new Eve Motion is cheaper than the previous model, selling for $39.99, which is a $10 discount.
It’s available now on Eve’s website and is coming to Amazon and the Apple Store later this year.