Now that there are a few Matter bridges available (SwitchBot Hub 2, several aqara models, a Tuya model sold under the zemismart name, etc), I am seeing a lot of confusion about “matter hubs.“
Technically, there are no matter hubs, because hubs operate at the network transport level, and matter operates a layer above that at the application level. wi-Fi is still Wi-Fi, Thread is Still Thread, zigbee is still Zigbee: matter doesn’t change any of that.
What it changes is being able to use multiple apps and multiple voice assistants with the same device at the same time without needing special integrations.
In order to make this work, what matter does have is “matter commissioners,” “matter controllers,” and “matter bridges.”
I wrote a detailed post about this in the following thread:
@JDRoberts i just purchased a samsung tv & it says its matter capabale, just not sure which one but i am wondering what can i do sonce in guessing my tv is also hub. I see tou mentioned switchbot & i was thinking of trying that out with some of the rocker switches i hace that arent smart. Im just aaking because i have no clue what i can try. Thanks.
If you have a Samsung television that says it is matter capable, then it should be able to act as a matter controller for Matter Devices, just like the V3 hub does.
It is still only supporting matter one way in, though. You won’t be able to add your television to any other platform.
I have the SwitchBot hub 2, and it works pretty well for me. Sometimes smartthings gets confused about the state of a device when Alexa and Apple home are not confused, so I’m not sure what’s going on there.
Why don’t you start a new thread under Projects asking for advice on what matter devices to use, and that way we can drill down into your specific use cases.
First, to get this out-of-the-way, my understanding from some community members is that adding a matter bridge to SmartThings is currently broken? I don’t know whether that’s true or not or if it only applies to some situations. If anyone has the details, please post.
That out of the way…
The following is a fascinating development I hadn’t really thought about for anything except Z wave, but it makes sense.
A third-party company is now making a matter bridge for devices for a big home automation system, which uses a proprietary protocol and does not offer its own matter compatibility at this time.
The big company is Homematic IP, A popular German home automation platform for professional installers, which uses IPV6 for its addressing.
The company offering the matter bridge for €149 is Mediola. (they also have one for Somfy.) they note that matter may not bring in all features or all devices, but it’s a really interesting release.
If adding a matter bridge is working in SmartThings, this would be the first time I’ve seen a possible way of integrating Homematic IP with the SmartThings platform, something which has been requested by multiple community members over the years.
But of course, if adding a matter bridge is broken in smartthings this isn’t going to help.
Still… an interesting development. This would be the equivalent of a third party in the US creating a matter bridge for Control4 or Lutron (if it could be done without patent violation, but I think it could be). Or any other proprietary platform that hasn’t yet released its own matter support.
When you think about it, it’s the same business model as Starling (nest to HomeKit) or the original HOOBS (Ring and a lot of other devices to HomeKit).
Someone could even make one for SmartThings, although it would probably have to be limited to specific capabilities.
Meanwhile, eve’s new inwall outlet (due for release in February 2024) has some tasty specifications
Due in early February, the Eve Energy Outlet ($49.95) is a compact duplex wall outlet that works with Matter, the ecosystem-unifying smart home protocol that recently turned a year old.
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The two receptacles in the Eve Energy Outlet can be individually switched and automated, Eve says, while “advanced” energy monitoring will allow Apple HomeKit and Samsung SmartThings users to keep tabs on how much power their connected devices are consuming.
I’ve been testing Matter devices all year, and it has been the most frustrating year of my decade-plus experience with smart home devices. Twelve months in, I do not have one Matter-based device working reliably in my home. To make matters worse (yeah, I know), the one system that’s always been rock solid, my Philips Hue smart lights, is basically unusable in any of my smart home platforms since I moved it to Matter.
failure on the part of the independent standard organization to have the courage to say what implementation of the standard would actually require before they would grant logo use
failure on the part of the matter controller designers from many different companies, including the voice assistants and the hub manufacturers, to layout clear and consistent timelines for which of the many optional features they were going to implement first, leading to huge confusion in the marketplace on the part of users as to what their expectations should be from each platform.
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Individual device manufacturers like, say, Tuo, have done everything right, but the two failings above have frustrated customers purchasing the products.
Reliability is the key word. I have some Matter devices that constantly fall offline, others that only fall off when I reboot my wifi system and others that are rock solid.
I feel your pain. I have three of those bulbs and I’m about to pull all three and put the old zigbee bulbs back because of the unstable connection. They are quick and work, until any slight disruption, such as a firmware update on the WiFi router. Then all go offline, never to be seen again - until a complete rebuild. This is exactly the opposite experience from what a reliable platform should provide.
Don’t even bring up trying to get them paired with SmartThings if they are already paired with another ecosystem.
Finally, back at my house with the Leviton D26HD Dimmer/Switches and the D215S Switches which I upgraded to FW 2.1.0 remotely to enable Matter support. I can report that I successfully paired all of them with an Echo Dot 4 by simply putting the switches in pairing mode and then adding them to the Alexa app via Add Device->Other->Matter.
Now the switches can be managed using Smartthings through the “My Leviton” integration (no ST hub at this location) or via Alexa through the Matter pairing. I could probably get rid of the “My Leviton” integration and use virtual devices in ST to trigger actions in Alexa, but this location has a different Alexa login than what I use with my normal ST/Alexa skill since we rent it out on Airbnb when we’re not here.
