Yale To Adopt August’s Smart Locking Technology, Including Auto Unlock

Since acquiring August last year, Assa Abloy has been working hard behind the scenes to bring the smart locking tech to its own brands. Now, the firm is ready to announce which brand is first to get a dose of August’s tech, and unsurprisingly it’s Yale.

Yale already offer a range of smart locks, but in order to get them to be truly ‘smart’, users were required to buy additional modules that only offered certain functionality. Wanted to connect the Yale smart lock to a Z-Wave home automation system, they’d have to buy the Z-Wave module. Well, technically users will have to buy a module for the new August functionality, but it brings a lot of cool features that aren’t as simple as just offering compatibility with a smart home ecosystem.

The Yale August module will offer features such as the ability to automatically unlock the door as the user is approaching. This is incredibly useful for those with their hands full of shopping bags, but it can also be highlighted as a potential security flaw. Yale insists that they’ve managed to balance both convenience and security, but there’s no word on whether there have been changes to August’s existing technology.

By far the most exciting part of this new August module is the fact that Yale’s smart locks no longer need to reply on third-party smart home ecosystems in order to be truly smart. Before those who wanted to connect the company’s locks to services such as Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant required pairing the lock with a third-party smart home hub. Now, that’s no longer needed – and the whole lock can be managed from within the August app.

Yale will offer the August module as a separate offering for those who already own a Yale smart lock, but the company will also be offering it as a package. There’s no word on whether or not August’s smart locking technology will be available to UK or European customers, however. Essential Install has reached out to Assa Abloy to find out, but those in the US will be able to get the August module from next month for $129.