The ThinkA zwave to HomeKit hub provides a clear model for how a zwave hub might become a matter bridge. In fact, I would expect them to be one of the first manufacturers to add Matter compliance, but we will see.
Ok, yes, I was skeptical too, but whatever this device is it is certified by the Zwave alliance and it appears on the official list of HomeKit accessories at the Apple site.
https://products.z-wavealliance.org/products/4025?selectedFrequencyId=1
Maybe they convinced Apple that Z wave certification was enough to meet the security requirements if the bridge also had a special chip, which it does.
This device is expensive: €429 for the European version, so figure probably $550 when they have a US model. But it’s very cool.
Also… Yes, you could immediately see and configure Zwave associations and central scenes for each device.
Also also: everything runs locally except integration to third-party services like voice assistants.
You can already bring Zigbee devices into HomeKit through…
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@jelockwood @Automated_House
Early hands on reviews look good on this, and I have to say I really like their UI design as far as exposing parameter settings.
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I don’t know if it would be possible to add a smartthings hub as a secondary to this or not, if you could, that would be very cool.
HomekitNews did their usual very detailed review.
Note that not everything is exposed to HomeKit. Some device classes don’t carry over and some individual features are also missing. For example, HomeKit does not yet have a device class for UV sensors, so one of the Fibaro multisensors only exposes some of its capabilities in the Home app. Also, double tap appears to be missing on most buttons, but you do get press and long press.
Anyway, this could also be a good indication of how matter …
It’s not quite as easy as it sounds, though, because to get into matter you have to have IP addresses. Zwave does have a “Z wave over IP“ specification, but as far as I know, no current “available at retail” hubs use it.
https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/white-papers/ZIP-and-IoT-Whitepaper.pdf
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