Remember when we said the LQ THINQ app had been certified as a “matter controller”?
They lied. It’s just a matter commissioner, like all the other apps so far. You need to also have a Matter controller, in this case, an LG television that supports matter. Disappointing, but not surprising.
Not setting lock codes is a limitation of the Google Home app, NOT Matter. I have that exact same lock and can set guest codes with Smart Lock Guest access in SmartThings.
This is a strange device, but will definitely fill a need.
Zemismart has released a version of Tuya’s M1 hub intended specifically to bridge Tuya zigbee and Thread devices to other platforms, including smartthings. List price is $99, but it looks like they’ve got a pre-order price of $49. (the English translation of the page has a number of issues that make things confusing.)
Anyway…
It is NOT a matter controller, so it won’t work if it’s the only hub you have.
It IS a Matter bridge.
You can ONLY add Tuya Zigbee devices to it, no third party Zigbee devices.
You will have to use the Tuya app to get the code you need to add to other platforms. (it’s not clear to me whether the smart life app would also work or not.)
ZemiSmart has launched a brand new smart home hub with a lot of functionality under the hood. The M1 is primarily a Zigbee hub that exposes Tuya Zigbee child devices to any Matter platform – Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings.
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Although it will work with any {Matter certified} Thread-enabled device, the Zigbee hub portion will only work with ZemiSmart and Tuya Zigbee child devices.
The product page says it’s also HomeKit certified and displays the old HomeKit logo, but I’m not sure whether it really is. It might just be using matter to get to Apple home.
Anyway… If you want to use Tuya devices locally with SmartThings without needing any custom code and without using the scenes method, this should do it, if it works as promised. As always, this does not mean that all features of all models will be brought through the integration.
Very interesting. As I would have expected it doesn’t look like it will be a bridge for Tuya WiFi devices. Which are the devices we have the most trouble integrating with ST. But it is definitely a step in the right direction.
As JD asked, if you try this Matter Bridge please report back to community and let up know how it works.
At present, the matter standard assumes that if you have a Wi-Fi device, it will be individually certified for matter, not bridged through a different device. I believe the issue is the multiple IP addresses, but we’ll see, I can think of quite a few Wi-Fi devices that are not technically capable of supporting matter, but that might be useful through a bridge.
Speaking of which, zemismart now has a few Wi-Fi devices which are individually certified for matter and they’re also on sale right now as of this posting.
This includes a relatively dim RGBW smart bulb, a couple of recessed lights, and a roller shade motor. Again, all of these are Wi-Fi, and will not require their new matter bridge.
Tuya is using terminology I haven’t seen anybody else using, but I like it:
In their matter discussions, devices are either:
Thread over Matter
WiFi over Matter
Or (this is the new term)
Bridge over Matter
——
So Tuya Zigbee devices connected to the Tuya matter bridge we just discussed up thread are described as “bridge over matter.”
I know that’s technically not quite correct: the bridge device is Wi-Fi over matter itself, and the end devices are Zigbee to the bridge device.
But I like the “bridge over matter“ term for those Zigbee Devices. I think functionally it’s quite clear and it makes it easy to discuss from a matter aspect.
Here’s a tuya video that a friend sent me which is intended for tuya’s OEM clients.
caution: this video will trigger both Alexa and Siri
Maybe I wasn’t paying attention, but the Aqara rep in the keynote didn’t say anything about the FP2 did she? I’m wondering if it’s integrated via Matter, C2C or a custom Edge driver…
I purchased the Zemismart M1 hub and just received it today. It comes with a matter code directly on the unit. It paired immediately with the Smartlife app. I can’t get it to connect to Smartthings via matter. Amazon Alexa sees it on the network as does Google home, but they can’t add it either. It just fails after trying. I was hoping that any of the items that I have connected via WiFi using Smartlife would import over but it doesn’t seem to have that option. I’m assuming it’s only ZigBee. The Smartlife app also generates a different matter code each time, the codes have a time limit on them. I have also tried to get the Switchbot hub v2 to connect via matter and no luck on that front either. I’m using a Smartthings v2 hub. Hopefully some updates will allow integration to happen.
Also, while it is a Matter bridge, it is not a matter controller, which creates some additional challenges. (But that’s the same way The hue bridge works, so definitely not insurmountable.)
It’s very new, so I haven’t seen any hands-on reviews of it yet.
Have you tried using the Tuya app instead of the smart life app?
It’s a matter controller. What it is NOT is a thread border router, so you need another device to do that, typically one of the smart speakers with that functionality.
So minor update on the Zemismart M1 hub. I removed it from Smartlife and set it up with the Tuya app. Hub interface and options are all the same. I had no luck getting it to connect to Smartthings via Tuya. I reset the hub and put it back into Smartlife since I use that app more frequently. I was able to get the M1 hub to connect to Google home. Android Matter setup says it’s compatible with Smartthings but fails at the last step to onboard. I feel like it’s a Smartthings issue at this point. Hopefully a future firmware will fix it. Some good news, I was able to finally get Switchbot hub v2 to connect to Smartthings via Matter. Integration of Switchbot is very limited. All I get is access to room temperature.
Do you have any other SwitchBot devices connected to that hub? For example, I brought in the curtain bots at my house into an Apple Home via matter bridge from the SwitchBot hub 2. I think @Automated_House did something similar with smartthings, but I’m not sure of the details.