Eve Systems has finally launched its first Android app — over two years after announcing it was working on one. This week, the once Apple-only smart home device maker launched the Eve for Matter app on the Google Play Store. The app will allow Android users to access the custom features of Eve’s devices that Matter doesn’t support, something previously only accessible to iOS users.
However, at launch, the new app will only work with Google Home and only with one Eve device, the new Eve Thermo (79.99 Euros) — a Matter-over-Thread smart radiator valve designed for European homes. While the earlier version of the Eve Thermo can be upgraded to support Matter and Thread, the new version has them pre-installed.
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Image: Eve Systems
“The plan is to continuously expand support for other Eve devices and platforms and turn the app into a comprehensive tool,” Lars Felber, director of PR at Eve Systems, told The Verge. “Nevertheless, we wanted to make the app available to our Eve Thermo customers with Android and Google Home as early as possible in the heating season, hence the initial exclusive release for this hardware,” he said.
There hasn’t been an Android app for Eve products before because the company’s commitment to privacy, along with eschewing cloud-to-cloud connections or requiring users to sign up for an account, meant it focused all its development efforts on Apple Home. However, the advent of the Matter smart home standard and its option for local control has allowed the company to branch out and work with the other platforms while maintaining its core values.
The new Eve app lets you add the Eve Thermo to Google Home through Matter and control it on that platform, as well as share it with any other Matter-compatible platform. But it also simultaneously adds it to the Eve app, where you can access additional features, such as creating and managing autonomous on-device schedules. Without the Eve app, you only get basic controls.
Currently, Android users can add any of Eve’s other Matter devices — such as the Eve Energy smart plug and Eve Motion blinds — to compatible platforms, including Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings.
But, until Eve adds support for more devices, Android users will be limited to those devices’ capabilities in Matter. In contrast, Apple Home users can access all of Eve’s innovative features, including in-depth energy data for smart plugs and adaptive shading for smart shades, through the Eve for Matter & HomeKit iOS app.
The Android app only works with Google Home as it was built on the Google Home APIs released earlier this year. Eve CEO Jerome Gackel said that these enabled the company to “turbo-charge the development of Eve for Android.” Felber said support for additional platforms, including Amazon Alexa and Samsung SmartThings, is coming in future versions.