At CES 2023, Eve announced its retrofit solution for making existing roller blinds smart, with a motor that is designed to sit inside the tube of your own blinds, along with adaptors to fit most types and sizes. Prior to this, the company offered a ready-made solution that included both the motor and custom blinds available through a series of resellers.
Although it was well received, the cost of replacing blinds can be quite high. To address this issue, Eve is now offering the aforementioned retrofit solution that enhances existing blinds by incorporating Thread technology that works with both Apple Home and the Eve App, with Matter integration to hopefully follow later. This is accomplished through a motor that can be inserted into the tube of the existing blinds. Despite the many different types of blind fittings available, Eve has ensured that their new kit will fit almost all types of blinds, with adaptors included for most fitting types.
The only prerequisite to using these retrofit motors is that you’ll need a Thread Border Router, which can be found in the HomePod Mini, HomePod 2nd Gen, Apple TV 2nd Gen, and Apple TV 3rd Gen with Ethernet & Wifi. However, Thread has a backup which uses Bluetooth in the absence of a Border Router, although it’s almost certainly going to be a less-than-ideal experience using this legacy smart home connectivity option.
The Eve MotionBlinds Upgrade Kit is available now on Amazon Stores in the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.