Has anyone successfully integrated a Govee Table Lamp 2 with SmartThings using the Matter pairing procedure? I’ve tried everything and it seemingly starts the process normally, meaning my SmartThing app immediately detects the new device and presents it to me for the process to add it to my system, but always fails in the last step which I believe is the final handshake, via WiFi, between the Govee Lamp and my SmartThings Hub (which is an ethernet connected device). I’ve added many other Matter devices using the same basic procedures and process and they all worked. Also, the lamp will successfully connect and can be controlled via Amazon Alexa and the Govee skill so I can confidently rule out a wireless connection limitation…at least as far as Amazon Alexa is concerned. It also works fine with the native Govee App on my phone or tablet, so that too works fine. My only real reason for the quest to integrate into SmartThings completely is so I can keep all the scenes / timers / controls in one location. Alexa works fine for voice control, the Govee app gives me basic controls for timers / dimming / etc. but having that added lay of discontinuity and needing to use two more apps is frustrating.
Another thought, can I do some kind of work around once I establish the connection in Amazon Alexa skill, can I get SmartThings to look for that and bring over from the Amazon ecosystem?
Any thoughts or advice on different ways to get to my ultimate goal, integration and control through SmartThings is appreciated.
If you are using the govee skill in Alexa that is utilizing a cloud to cloud integration and not Matter if I am not mistaken so I am sure others will correct me if I am wrong. Therefore you would not be able to connect it to ST as a Matter device.
So back to Govee. Have you connected other Govee devices to ST by means of Matter or other brands that you were successful? Which ST hub do you have? Are you attempting to add by QR code or did you generate a pairing code in the Govee app? Did you try both methods?
Let’s start with the basics. Have you successfully connected Any other devices to SmartThings using matter? Have you successfully connected the Govee device to any other home automation platforms using matter?
(it sounds like you used a different method to connect it to Alexa.)
If this is your first matter device, or the first matter platform for this device, then check out this FAQ and run through the steps. That should let you know whether it’s going to be possible.
Matter itself is not a network transportation protocol . The usual allegory is that if you’re sending a letter, matter controls the format of the form that goes inside the envelope. But something else actually schedules the trucks and delivers the letter.
For matter, at the time of this posting, it can be matter over Wi-Fi, matter over thread, or matter over bridge.
For this particular device, it’s matter over Wi-Fi, so you must indeed have it connected to your Wi-Fi before you’ll be able to complete adding it as a matter device to any platform.
See the IPv6 specification in the product description? That has to do with Wi-Fi.
That said, most matter over Wi-Fi devices are designed like many other home automation devices these days so that they initially get onboarded to your SmartThings app via Bluetooth and then creating the Wi-Fi connection is A step in the matter process. So some of this is just terminology, and some of it is details of the onboarding process, but this particular table lamp will definitely need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi that the SmartThings hub is connected to as part of adding it to SmartThings.
Thank you for the insights. I solved my problem with your input and some experimentation. I run a relatively more complex system in that I have two Wifi networks (one for automation / IOT devices and cameras) and the other for normal laptops / phones / tablets etc… Based on the error message I kept getting at the final step, it occurred to me that my Samsung ST Hub v3 was being blocked (or at least difficult to see in my network) since it was linked via ethernet to the “laptop” WiFi network. On a hunch, I took the hub and plugged directly into the Wifi router port for my automation network. Viola, it connected immediately successfully using Matter and established the device in the SmartThings environment. This did create a slightly different challenge that I also worked through. Originally I had no issues linking the Govee app to Alexa using the established “skill” which gave me complete voice control to the Govee Table Lamp 2 (i.e. advanced scenes, modes, etc.) that are in the Govee app. When I used the matter connection to SmartThings, this overwrote the Alexa skill side of the world and defaulted to the SmartThings connection (which makes sense, I forced that to happen). The SmartThigns control of the device is significantly more limited and doesn’t give the option for the advanced controls. I’ve seen this before with other devices, the dedicated apps for the device often get “dumbed down” when they connect and are displayed in the SmartThings interface. So, the final thing I needed to do to get advanced voice control back in the Alexa world was to re-link the Govee skill. The only quirk is in the Alexa environment, I now have two devices, one that is connected via the SmartThings protocol (i.e. Matter) and the other via the Govee App protocol. I have different names so when I want to use voice control, I just need to use the right “name” and the Alexa again works perfect.
You’re probably thinking I’m nuts right about now…and mostly you’re correct. I am far from any kind of expert, but I’ve been using automation from the days of X10 as the first pioneers in this space…and yes, a little nerdy when it comes to this as my hobby. Part of the fun is figuring out how to make it all work together, despite these often odd quirks.
Thanks again for the thoughts…it really triggered me to step back and think about the problem differently.
I’m a little late but I’ve got a few Govee lights, unfortunately for me my favorite one doesn’t have Matter, and won’t integrate into ST. I have two of the Table Lamp 2’s and definitely agree that a lot of the better features are lost in ST.
As far as the issue goes with having duplicate devices with Alexa, a simple fix is to just delete the version that comes from ST. I get doubles of nearly all my smart devices because they’re linked to both ST primarily for Matter, and wifi through the app with Alexa because that way they’ll retain a lot of the home apps features, i.e. built-in scenes and whatnot. The only downside is if you scan for new devices with Alexa, it will add all those devices back.
