I am mostly using Philips Hue because of the seemless integration. I also have some Ikea smart led strips and bulbs both of which are recognized natively by the Philips Hue bridge/app and work perfectly.
I decided to give Aqara Matter over Bridge T1 led light and the Nanoleaf Matter essentials a go.
Aqara has addressable parts of its strip and some nice scenes can be done through the Aqara app.
Nanoleaf has atleast changing colors scenes etc, which can be controlled through the Nanoleaf app.
Is there any way to control the scenes from Smartthings?
Because if not it’s quite useless - I can only do ON/OFF which I could do with a 5 bucks led-strip instead of an expensive Matter strip.
Unfortunately not at this time through the matter integration.
The independent third party Matter specifications does not yet support the transfer or control of scenes from one platform to another. There have been a lot of requests for this, so they are definitely considering it for sometime in the future, but it could be two or three years away. Their first priority is new types of devices.
As far as workarounds…
There are three common workaround’s, but they can be pretty limited, can be a lot of work to setup, and are generally only partial controls. But here they are in case there are any help.
if the device has an IFTTT integration, that may allow for scene activation. For example, this is possible for some Nanoleaf models.
if the device has a native Alexa integration, other than the matter integration, you may be able to get to the scenes through Alexa routines (not SmartThings routines).
you can always use a physical proxy device which is visible to both platforms. But then that requires using extra devices, which costs more money, and may not be worth it to you. For example, you could have an aqara smart plug act as a proxy. Turn the plug on from smartthings and then have a rule in the aqara app that when that plug comes on, you activate a specific scene there. This typically works fine, and is pretty straightforward, it’s just the extra dollar cost that makes it unappealing.
So basically “Matter” means you can turn it on or off via a Matter-compatible hub. I have around 50 devices in my house so far and I’m deeply disappointed by anything Matter.
IFTTT is something I’d wish to avoid - I’ve built my own web app to handle such cases, but I can’t easily throw webhook off of Google Home (my assistant currently) and I can’t easily do it from ST either - there are edge drivers and plugins, but they’re all a mess.
Philips Hue has nice scenes integration. Aqara and Nanoleaf do not. No idea why is that. It’s getting less and less smart having to open each app individually, I’m thinking of getting rid of the Nanoleaf amazing matter strip.
This is a good idea, I’ve done so in some places, however, this would mean a smart plug for each scene I need.
Every day, with each new device I’m more disappointed by the state of the smart home scene.
I understand. I think matter has pretty much disappointed everybody so far, although there is still hope for the future.
Matter has been a success for me personally, in one regard: I now have a few more choices for devices that will work with both Apple home and Alexa. For example, I can now use my SwitchBot curtain controls and button pushers in Apple home, and they work very well. That was a definite plus for me, but all the rest of it has been disappointing.
