Understand Smart Home Thread Support

You can connect your smart home device to Alexa with the Thread wireless connectivity protocol. Thread is an IPv6 wireless-mesh-networking technology designed for security, reliability, and scalability. As a low-power technology, Thread can extend the lifetime of battery-powered smart home devices. The IP-based open-standard mesh network broadens network coverage to keep smart home devices working even if one device goes offline. For more details about Thread, see The Thread Group.

Thread-enabled Amazon Echo devices act as border routers to provision and secure Thread networks. With the customer's permission, your smart home skill can access and select the most appropriate wireless Personal Area Network (PAN) to connect your Matter over Thread (MoT) device seamlessly. When a customer enables your skill, they can share their network credentials with Alexa and your skill. This eliminates the step to enter network credentials manually for each device that they add to the network.

Alexa-enabled device support

Thread-enabled Amazon Echo and eero devices have built in Thread border routers and support Thread version 1.3 defined by the Thread Group. For details about the Thread protocol, see the Thread Specification.

The following Amazon Echo and eero devices have Thread border routers built-in:

  • Echo (4th generation)
  • Echo Show 10 (3rd generation)
  • Echo Show 8 (3rd generation)
  • Echo Hub
  • Echo Studio (1st and 2nd generation)
  • Echo Plus (2nd generation)
  • eero 6 and eero 6+
  • eero PoE 6
  • eero PoE gateway
  • eero Pro 6E and eero Pro 6
  • eero Max 7
  • eero Pro
  • eero Beacon

Add permissions for Thread network credentials

You can use the Credential Locker REST API in your smart home skill to get customer Thread network credentials or create a new customer Thread network for Matter device setup. You can use these credentials to commission Matter devices to the customer's wireless PAN.

To use the API, you must add the skill permission for Thread network credentials with customer consent. To enable this permission in the Alexa developer console, complete the following steps.

To add permission to read Thread network credentials in the developer console

  1. Sign in to the Alexa developer console.
  2. On the Skills tab, under SKILL NAME, find your skill.
  3. Under ACTIONS, from the drop-down menu in your skill's row, select Edit.
  4. In the left pane, click PERMISSIONS.
  5. To enable permission to read and write Thread network credentials, toggle Access network credentials.

You can also update the skill manifest by using the Alexa Skills Kit Command Line Interface. To enable the thread network permission, include the credential_locker:thread_networks:readwrite permission in the permissions field of your skill manifest.

After you update and save your manifest file, use the Alexa Skills Kit Command Line Interface to deploy the changed manifest.

Obtain the Works with Alexa badge

Works with Alexa (WWA) is a certification program that establishes your product's compatibility with Alexa. This certification makes sure that your customers have a better smart home experience. For details about the WWA program, see Works with Alexa Overview.

After you have thoroughly tested your Thread-enabled device with the Echo, you can submit your product for WWA certification. To register a Thread device for WWA, make sure to select Thread for the communication protocol that your device uses to connect to Alexa.

In addition, make sure that your MoT device meets the WWA requirements for Matter. For details, see Apply for Works with Alexa Certification.

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Last updated: Sep 24, 2024