Two of the smart home industry’s largest ecosystem players have taken a meaningful step toward solving one of Matter’s most persistent interoperability issues, with Apple and Google rolling out support for Thread 1.4 to their respective streaming devices.
According to 9to5Google , Thread 1.4 first came to compatible Apple TVs through the tvOS 27 developer beta, as spotted by Matter Alpha, but Google TV Streamer received an update to the same spec through a separate software release.
This specification update introduces a standardized way for Thread Border Routers to share network credentials, addressing features that were originally intended to work seamlessly across the ecosystem but were not possible in previous versions of the protocol.
A border router is a device that connects Thread-enabled smart home accessories to a broader network. A long-standing problem has been that routers in each ecosystem tend to create their own separate Thread networks rather than participating in a single shared network, fragmenting connectivity throughout the home.
Credential Sharing in Threads 1.4 addresses this issue by providing routers with a common mechanism to join existing networks rather than spawning new ones. In principle, this is a process comparable to sharing a Wi-Fi password between devices on the same connection.
Full implementation on both platforms is still in progress, Google TV Streamer’s QR code credential sharing option is not yet reliably functional, and Apple’s tvOS 27 developer beta currently lacks a credential sharing interface, despite devices registering as Threaded 1.4 capable in network discovery tools.
Samsung also added Thread 1.4 credential sharing support to its SmartThings hubs in October 2025, IKEA’s Dirigera hubs are already running the updated spec, and the company says it plans to introduce Thread 1.4 support to compatible devices by the end of 2026, with Amazon remaining the main holdout among the major smart home ecosystems.
Neither Apple nor Google have confirmed when stable Thread 1.4 credential sharing will be available to end users beyond the current developer beta period.
