There’s a hidden Thread radio inside your iPhone 16 and 15 – and Apple’s just explained the 2 key things it does

The iPhone 16 and 15 both have Thread radios inside them
An Apple director and Thread president has explained why they’re there
Both of the main benefits are related to smart home future-proofing

Apple‘s kept pretty quiet about that the fact that its iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 series, alongside many recent iPads and MacBooks, have Thread radios inside them. But now one of its directors has explained why they’re there – and how they’ll soon be able to boost your smart home plans.

What is Thread?

(Image credit: Thread)

Thread is a wireless protocol that’s been specifically designed for the smart home. It’s designed to complement Wi-Fi by offering a low-power, low-bandwidth way for devices to communicate with each other.

In an interview with The Verge (via 9to5Mac), Vividh Siddha – who is Director of software engineering at Apple, and also president of Thread Group – said that Apple’s inclusion of Thread radios is to “enable an early adopter” to build a Matter-based smart home, and then gave two clear examples of how the fledgling protocol can help.

“If you take a very early on smart home user – somebody who goes to Ikea, buys a bulb and a switch – what happens with those users is they discover they cannot do automations. So, Thread on mobile can enable that evolution [to a border router]”, Siddha said.

In other words, while you typically need a hub to unlock powerful smart home functions such as automations, having Thread on your phone can act as the necessary glue to get them all talking to a border router (like the Apple TV, for example). Because any device that supports Thread can act as a border router, you hopefully already have one somewhere in your setup.

The other benefit of that Thread radio inside your iPhone 16 or 15, according to Vividh Siddha, is that it can act as a handy backup during power cuts. “The other important factor is the ability to use your accessories, and some important ones, like your front door lock when there’s a power outage” Siddha said.

“If you have no infrastructure – your Wi-Fi router is down, your Thread border router is down – and you still want the ability to get into your house or do other things that might be smart home related. Those are some use cases that it’s explicitly designed for, but it’s not limited to that,” Siddha added.

Matter is still a mess – but there’s hope

Matter standard in the smart home

(Image credit: Connectivity Standards Alliance)

The problem with the smart home and Matter (the standard that will supposedly get everything singing from the same hymn sheet) is that it’s still very messy and confusing. Unless you have a qualification in networking protocols, you probably don’t care about Thread, border routers or Matter – you just want everything you buy to work out of the box.

This is probably why Apple has been quiet about Thread support in your iPhone, iPads and Macs – because it’s still early days. But there is hope on the horizon, according to this interview at least.

Referring the issues that have hampered Matter and Thread, Tobin Richardson (president and CEO of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, or CSA) said: “2025 is going to be a really important year for Matter. We’re not looking to add 100 new device types this year. We’re looking to really hit reliability and make sure that things just work. That’s been a strong focus, and that’s why these relationships are so important.”

Vividh Siddha, from Thread and Apple, agreed by adding that “2025 is really pivotal for us to get all those issues resolved, to get all these product experiences to be more robust and reliable”.

So while that seamless smart home experience we’ve been promised for years may still be a little while off, at least you know the latest iPhones, alongside other Apple devices like the latest Apple TVs and HomePods, will be future-proofed and ready to join the party when it finally kicks off.

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mark.wilson@futurenet.com (Mark Wilson)

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