And from what I’ve seen people posting, the issues have been primarily with Echo devices and ST devices. This explains it very clearly that Amazon isn’t sharing its keys with other ecosystems. So regardless of which platform controller you connect it to first, the other won’t have access to the necessary keys from the other platform. Until Amazon decides to play nice with others, this will be an ongoing problem.
Another article from the same site on Thread nonstandardization. This one is an interview with an executive from eve, and gives even more details on the issues.
So…based on the recent interviews:
The thread specification now says that thread networks with different origins can all be joined together in one “fabric.” But they have to exchange a security key to do so, and neither thread nor matter mandated how that exchange would take place, they left it up to each company.
Amazon always sets up its own thread network and won’t let any other thread networks join the fabric.
Smartthings always sets up its own thread network, but will let other networks join.
Apple will join other thread networks, or let others join it, but the security key exchange is done through iCloud. So the other network had to be created on an iOS device.
Google will join other thread networks or let others join it, whether they were created with an iOS device or an android device.
No, that’s not confusing at all…
I’ve also yet to see any kind of evidence SmartThings TBR can join EACH OTHERS Thread networks. Both Home Assistant and the Nanoleaf app show my Station and Aeotec as two different Thread networks . Unlike my two Apple Homepod Minis that show under one network, my two SmartThings Hubs are two separate networks.
Yes, my understanding from public comments by ST employees is that every time a smartthings hub which is a thread border router is set up, it creates its own thread network. It doesn’t even look for any others.
if ST does not even try within its ecosystem, will corporations have the incentive?
Some hope however. “Amazon and Samsung’s collaboration will allow customers to easily tap into Matter’s multi-admin feature, as well as simplify onboarding while creating a unified Thread network in the home. Customers that opt-in will be able to control their Matter devices with both Alexa and SmartThings without having to set up devices on each smart home system. By sharing Thread network credentials, customers will benefit from streamlined setup for Thread based devices and a more reliable experience through wider coverage on a single Thread network.”
That article is nine months old and there’s been no progress that we can tell
“Thread standard may create multiple networks in your smart home”
Somewhat misleading article, which I’m seeing a lot of these days.
Yes, the light strip uses Zigbee. But it does not Itself support matter, and it will not get a Matter logo.
Instead, it connects to a specific matter bridge, in this case, one of the aqara hubs with that functionality, and it is the hub that then connects to other platforms via matter. Once that matter bridge is connected to another platform, it will bring the light strip in with it.
Only… Smartthings does not yet support importing matter bridges, although it does intend to.
So: yes, Zigbee.
Yes, matter, but only when connected to its own matter bridge, and only when that matter bridge is accepted into another platform.
So for now, no to working with smartthings via matter. Although, hopefully that will change in the future.
Hub V3 firmware update scheduled for next week includes some Matter features, but no full details yet:
- Added support for 3rd party Matter Bridges
.- Fixed a driver bug that prohibited reading from some Matter manufacturer-specific clusters
Aeotec Smart Home Hub/2018/2015 Model Hub Firmware Release Notes - 0.49.09
This is a really nice list of Matter devices which distinguishes between “announced,” “beta,” “ready,” and “stopped.”
The only thing missing is a clear delineation of which hubs are also matter bridges. They just group them all together. But other than that, I really like it.
The one company I have not seen any news about in regards to Matter is Lutron. They are a member of the CSA but have not made any announcements on how or when they might support it.
Yeah, no announcements I’ve seen either. Most of their devices are professionally installed so it’s less of an issue for them and of course they’re not competing with the very low price no label stuff anyway. For now they seem content that having a good Amazon Alexa integration and a good HomeKit integration is enough to satisfy their installer customers, as well as many of their DIY customers.
Lutron has a long history of never pre-announcing anything: the first official announcement is almost always when the device is available to purchase or the feature is ready to use.
Although I am happy Lutron is part of CSA, their RF is not 2.4 GHz? Why would they be compelled?
However, the white paper does mention “In 2019, backed by over 25 years of wireless lighting experience, we introduced Clear Connect Type X as the first native 2.4GHz Clear Connect product from Lutron.”
The matter standard doesn’t care what frequency the device uses. But it does have to be IPV6 addressable, which the Lutron proprietary frequency is not. However, that shouldn’t make any difference: what they would need to do is update their SmartBridge device to become a matter bridge (or put out a new model), which is what Hue is doing. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it should be doable if they choose to do that.