WireGuard, Mesh and a new design: What's in the new FRITZ! Lab

New features in the FRITZ! Lab

The new FRITZ! Lab has started for the FRITZ!Box 7590, offering a number of new features to try out in VPN, Mesh Wi-Fi, telephony and operation. Support for the WireGuard VPN protocol is new, allowing you to set up VPN connections even faster. The fritz.box user interface has been given a refresh, with the Wi-Fi section appearing tidier and cleaner in the future – for convenient use with a smartphone or notebook.

There are also optimizations in Mesh Wi-Fi: If you use a FRITZ!Box as a Mesh Repeater, you'll benefit from higher data throughputs and more stability with the future FRITZ!OS. With the new version, both bands (2.4 and 5 GHz) are available for the optimal connection between the FRITZ!Box at the connection and the Mesh Repeater. The FRITZ!Fon gains a new appointment calendar and learns to speak with the caller announcement feature. Voice announcements (available in selected markets) can now also be selected as your ring tone, for example callers stored in the address book or appointments in your calendar. The FRITZ!Fon then broadcasts announcements such as "Claudia is calling" or "Leave now for the train station". Dealing with unwanted callers also gets more convenient, since the telephone book can act as an "allowlist": Callers not included in the phone book can be blocked or diverted to an answering machine.

The upcoming FRITZ!OS will also open up new possibilities in the Smart Home. For example, there will be new templates for actions with Wi-Fi guest access, answering machines and push mail. FRITZ!Box also supports window sensors for detecting open windows. Those who use the FRITZ!Box's NAS function to access data in the entire home network will be pleased to know that with the next major FRITZ!OS, exFAT can now also used in addition to the FAT and NTFS file formats. Storage media can now be integrated more quickly in the FRITZ! home network.

Test drive the FRITZ! Lab now

The FRITZ! Lab will be enhanced with additional features over the next few weeks and made available for more FRITZ!Box models. You can find the release notes with all new features and updates here. The FRITZ! Lab installation process is also explained here.