Thread 1.4 Support Lands on Apple TV and Google TV Streamer

• Thread 1.4 support has arrived on Apple TV via the tvOS 27 developer beta and on the Google TV Streamer via a software update.
• Thread 1.4 support introduces standardised credential sharing, meaning border routers can finally join one unified Thread network instead of creating their own.
• Amazon is the last major ecosystem holdout, though the company has confirmed it will update its devices to Thread 1.4 this year.
• HomePod and Google’s Nest Hubs are still waiting on Thread 1.4 updates, so a fully unified network isn’t quite here yet.

• Thread 1.4 support has arrived on Apple TV via the tvOS 27 developer beta and on the Google TV Streamer via a software update.
• Thread 1.4 support introduces standardised credential sharing, meaning border routers can finally join one unified Thread network instead of creating their own.
• Amazon is the last major ecosystem holdout, though the company has confirmed it will update its devices to Thread 1.4 this year.
• HomePod and Google’s Nest Hubs are still waiting on Thread 1.4 updates, so a fully unified network isn’t quite here yet.

Thread 1.4 Support Finally Arrives on Apple TV and Google TV Streamer

Thread 1.4 support has quietly landed on two of the most important devices in the smart home ecosystem. Apple’s Apple TV is now running the spec via the tvOS 27 developer beta, while the Google TV Streamer received it through a background software update — developments first spotted by 9to5Google and Matter Alpha. It’s not a flashy announcement, but it’s one of the more meaningful steps forward the smart home world has seen in a while.

To understand why this matters, you need to know what Thread actually is. It’s a low-power, mesh networking protocol designed specifically for smart home devices — things like smart locks, sensors, and bulbs that need to stay connected without draining a battery in a week. Thread is also one of the core protocols that Matter, the industry’s big interoperability standard, runs on. The dream was always that Matter would make your smart home just work, regardless of whether you’re in the Apple, Google, Amazon, or Samsung ecosystem. Thread was supposed to be the invisible plumbing underneath that made it all happen seamlessly.

The problem? That invisible plumbing turned into a tangle of separate pipes. Every Thread Border Router — devices like the Apple TV, HomePod, Google TV Streamer, and Amazon Echo — ended up creating its own isolated Thread network rather than sharing one. If you had an Apple TV and a Google TV Streamer in your living room, your Thread devices might be hopping between two completely separate networks. It was messy, confusing, and exactly the opposite of the plug-and-play future Matter promised. Thread 1.4 support is the fix that addresses this fragmentation at the protocol level.

What Thread 1.4 Actually Fixes

The Thread 1.4 spec, introduced back in 2024, addressed this directly by standardising how border routers share network credentials with each other. Think of it like sharing a Wi-Fi password, except the devices do it automatically behind the scenes. Instead of each border router insisting on running its own Thread network, they can now recognise each other, exchange credentials, and agree to operate on a single unified mesh. For users, Thread 1.4 support should translate into fewer dropped connections, simpler device commissioning, and a smart home that actually behaves like a coherent system rather than a collection of competing silos.

The fact that Thread 1.4 support is now appearing on both Apple and Google’s streaming hardware is significant because these devices are among the most widely deployed Thread Border Routers in homes today. An Apple TV 4K sits in millions of living rooms acting as a Home hub. The Google TV Streamer is Google’s primary Thread Border Router now that it replaced the Chromecast with Google TV. Getting both of them onto the same version of Thread is the prerequisite for everything else.

We’re Not Quite There Yet

That said, ‘arriving’ and ‘working’ aren’t the same thing. The Google TV Streamer now shows an option to generate a QR code to join a Thread network — a promising sign — but reports suggest it wasn’t functional at the time of writing. On the Apple side, DNS discovery tools confirm the Apple TV is running Thread 1.4, but there’s no visible credential-sharing interface in the iOS or tvOS 27 developer betas yet. Both companies are clearly building toward something, but the consumer-facing experience isn’t there yet.

It’s also worth remembering that this isn’t the first time Thread 1.4 support has flirted with Apple’s software. The spec actually appeared in a tvOS 26 beta earlier, only to be pulled before the final public release. Apple clearly wasn’t satisfied with the implementation at the time. The fact that it’s back in tvOS 27 suggests the work is further along now — but anyone who remembers the tvOS 26 situation will probably want to wait for a stable release before getting too excited.

HomePod owners will also have to be patient. There’s no developer beta for HomePod Software 27 yet, which means Apple’s smart speakers aren’t part of the Thread 1.4 support rollout at this point. On the Google side, the Nest Hub lineup hasn’t received a 1.4 update either. Speculation is running that the new Google Home Speaker — expected later this month — could launch with Thread 1.4 support baked in, which would be a smart move given the timing.

The Broader Ecosystem Is Almost Aligned

Step back a little and the picture is actually encouraging. Samsung added Thread 1.4 credential sharing to its SmartThings hubs back in October 2024. Ikea’s Dirigera hub is also on Thread 1.4. Apple and Google are now in the process of joining them. That leaves Amazon as the last significant holdout among the major smart home ecosystems — and Amazon has publicly stated that its smart speakers will get Thread 1.4 support before the end of 2025.

Once Amazon crosses that line, every major ecosystem will be running the same version of Thread for the first time. That’s not a trivial milestone. It means the technical foundation for a unified Thread network — where border routers from Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, and Ikea can all participate in a single shared mesh — will finally exist across the board. The result, in theory: a more stable and expansive Thread network in your home, with devices commissioning faster, connections dropping less often, and the whole system being far less dependent on which brand’s hub happens to be closest.

What This Means for the Matter Smart Home Dream

It’s tempting to be cynical about smart home standards. Matter launched in late 2022 with enormous fanfare and has since been a slow, occasionally frustrating journey toward the seamless interoperability it promised. Thread, as Matter’s backbone, has arguably been one of the bigger stumbling blocks — not because the protocol itself is flawed, but because the lack of cross-ecosystem credential sharing meant that the ‘one network’ vision simply couldn’t materialise even when all the hardware was in place.

Thread 1.4 support across all major ecosystems won’t fix everything overnight. There are still software implementations to mature, user interfaces to build out, and devices to update. But it does close one of the most fundamental gaps in the current setup. The fact that Apple and Google — historically not the most cooperative pair in the consumer tech world — are both moving toward the same Thread 1.4 standard at roughly the same time is a good sign that the industry is finally treating interoperability as a genuine priority rather than a talking point.

For anyone sitting at home with a smart lock that doesn’t know whether to talk to the Apple TV or the Google TV Streamer, relief may actually be on the horizon. Just don’t hold your breath until Amazon updates its Echo lineup with Thread 1.4 support — at that point, the real test of whether Thread’s unified future actually delivers on its decade-old promise begins.

Source: The Verge

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