Apple and Google update smart home hubs to Thread 1.4

Apple and Google are putting their smart-home hubs on the same newer networking standard, and the real test is not the version number but whether mixed-brand homes become easier to run. Apple TV support for Thread 1.4 has turned up in the tvOS 27 developer beta, released June 8, while Google has updated the Google TV Streamer so it can work with the newer Thread setup as a border router.

Thread 1.4 was formally released by the Thread Group on September 4, 2024, with changes aimed at interoperability, reliability, range, security and energy conservation. The biggest practical shift is standardized Thread Credentials Sharing, which is meant to let border routers and devices from different ecosystems recognize and trust each other more easily. The standard also defines a path for Thread border routers to connect to the internet over infrastructure, which the group says can improve cloud connectivity, diagnostics, software updates and remote control.

That matters because older Thread border routers from different vendors could create separate networks inside the same home, weakening the mesh instead of strengthening it. The Thread Group says updated devices can join an existing Thread network regardless of brand or ecosystem, which is the kind of change that could finally make a home with Apple, Google and other Matter-enabled gear behave like one system rather than several competing ones.

Google’s own support material shows why the update is more than a technical footnote. The Google TV Streamer can either create a new Thread network or join an existing one, and it securely stores Thread credentials in the user’s Google Account. Google also lists the Google TV Streamer, Nest Hub 2nd gen, Nest Hub Max and Nest Wifi Pro as Thread border routers for Google Home. The company says Thread devices relay information through mesh extenders and can keep communicating even if one extender goes offline, a core reliability claim for homes that depend on locks, lights and sensors staying online.

Apple’s move follows a pattern that started when Apple TV support for Thread 1.4 was spotted in the tvOS 26 beta in June 2025. The new tvOS 27 beta pushes that direction further, even as Apple and Google have not publicly laid out every implementation detail. What is clear is that both companies are aligning their home hubs with a standard that was designed to reduce fragmentation, and the success or failure of that effort will be measured in whether consumers can stop caring which company made the router hiding behind the television.