Is Thread 1.2 The One True HA Protocol?
With real support for BTLE, and massive sensor pools, Thread 1.2 takes a major step forward towards being the home automation (HA) protocol that can really do everything. Even more importantly, all the big players (cough… newcomers) are lining up behind it, so there is massive backing. While I personally have a [mostly] Z-Wave installation at home, I would love it if more devices, especially mobiles & smart wearables, could join the HA network as sensors. Proximity is an easy one, but seeing how sleep detection is a feature of most smart watches, how slick would it be if you could trigger off of that state change (i.e. turn off lights, TV, etc when you fall sleep)?
A key factor in Thread’s likely future success is its embrace of another other key standard – Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Bluetooth is a potential threat to Thread, especially with its overlords’ efforts to expand it into a networking meshing standard. The Thread Group has wisely acknowledged that BLE is a crucial standard for building and administering networks of physical sensors and devices, because pretty much everything has Bluetooth built in.