Yale launches its first retrofit smart lock — the Yale Approach with Wi-Fi

This week, Yale launched its first retrofit smart door lock, the $129.99 Yale Approach with Wi-Fi. The lock attaches only to the back of your door, so you don’t have to replace your entire deadbolt to get access to smart features like auto-unlock and locking your door from your phone. The Yale Approach will also work with a new wireless Yale Keypad ($69.99), with a fingerprint-enabled version coming later this year. Also later this year, Yale says the new lock will have the option of a firmware upgrade to add Matter-over-Thread connectivity.

Retrofit locks are great for renters who can’t swap out their locks or for people with nice door hardware who want to keep the look of their door while still asking a voice assistant to lock the front door for them.

According to Yale, the new lock includes all the smart lock features you’d expect, including auto-unlocking, auto-locking, and one-touch locking (using the keypad). It can be controlled through the Yale Access app, where you can view the lock’s access history and create schedules and routines. It comes with a plug-in Yale Connect module to connect it to Wi-Fi, uses four AA batteries, and has a battery life of up to 12 months. It’s compatible with all the major smart home platforms except Apple Home.

Because it’s a retrofit lock, you can still use your existing key to unlock the door, and you can pair it with the new Yale Keypad ($179.99 for both if you buy them together), which can store up to 250 codes.

Ryan Daviau, product manager at Yale, tells The Verge that the keypad will also work with most existing August smart locks (all except the first- and second-gen versions), which could be handy if you’re looking to upgrade to a touchpad keypad for your August lock. When the fingerprint version arrives, it will bring biometric access to the August locks for the first time.

August has long been the leader in the retrofit lock space, but since Assa Abloy bought both August and Yale in 2017, we’ve only seen a handful of updates to the August line. By contrast, there have been many updates to the Yale line — including a brand-new line of smart locks under the Yale Assure 2 name with many of August’s best features, such as auto-unlock.

Both August and the US arm of Yale were sold to Fortune Brands last year, and with the launch of Yale’s first retrofit lock, plus the fact that there hasn’t been a new August smart lock since 2020, my guess is we’re done seeing new hardware from August. 

I asked Daviau if August locks were being actively developed and if any new products were coming, “We’re always looking to develop the line, but we have no news about new products,” he said. He did confirm there are no plans to support the new interoperability smart home standard Matter on current August products.

The new Yale Approach lock strongly resembles the $200 August Smart Lock + Connect released in 2017, and as the Yale Approach is slimmer and cheaper, it’s clearly going to cannibalize that product. 

However, the flagship Yves Béhar-designed August Wi-Fi Smart Lock — The Verge’s pick for the best retrofit smart lock — is still the smallest, sleekest retrofit lock you can get. But you’re paying more for that compact design, and its battery life is very poor. Unlike the Yale Approach, it does work with Apple Home.

Daviau also said the Yale Approach will be upgraded to support Matter later this year and that, thanks to a currently dormant Thread radio on board, it will work with Matter over Thread. “If you have a Thread Amazon Echo or Google Home device, those will talk to your lock through Thread over Matter, getting you remote access that way,” says Daviau. “But people can choose. You’ll get a Connect with the lock, so you can choose to connect that way or with Matter later.”

Matter-over-Thread will enable compatibility with all the major smart home platforms — including Apple Home, without needing the Yale Connect. With the Connect, the Yale Approach will work with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings, but not with Apple Home. 

Despite its appeal as a wireless protocol for smart locks — low-power, low-latency, a direct internet connection, so no need for a standalone bridge or hub — Thread has so far been hard to find on smart locks. Schlage has the Encode Plus, but it doesn’t (and won’t) support Matter, Yale has a Thread module for its older Assure Lock SL that works with Matter, and Nuki has a retrofit Matter-over-Thread lock for European locks. But none of these have a fingerprint reader.

When Yale’s biometric keypad arrives, the Yale Approach will be one of only two Matter-over-Thread smart locks with biometric access. And it’s likely to be cheaper than the other one, the $299 Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter, which works over Thread and is expected to launch later this summer.

The Verge will be putting the new Yale Approach with Wi-Fi smart lock to the test, so look for a full review shortly.