I bet the something special for IKEA is $$$$. WWST, partnership agreement or something else.
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IKEA has had multiple models that were submitted for the official âworks with SmartThings certificationâ over the years.
They are still an official partner, although not for all models:
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Yes. The Dirigera hub is the matter bridge in this instance.
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Thatâs the feeling, maybe initially had many compatible devices, but the official list only had old models last time I checked and even some of the existing drivers will not work fine with recent firmwares.
Maybe the Matter bridge was the plan all along but it got delayed, although it would be better to not depend on yet another hub.
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Thanks. That is the key missing information. I am able to read between the lines and guessed that was the case, but I still wasnât sure.
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By the way, as with any matter device, you will also need a âmatter controllerâ on the SmartThings platform. So a smartthings/aeotec hub, or one of the Samsung smart appliances/televisions that has a matter controller built-in.
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Turns out LG is certifying many different types of Matter over Thread devices, looks like theyâre getting serious in the smart home accesories front after the Homey purchase. I wonder when will they release, if it will be worldwide and if theyâll be price competitive or not.
The smart button and the contact sensor were already mentioned, yesterday was the turn of the air quality sensor which looks really nice:
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They did announce last year that they would integrate with Smartthings. Weâll see if the Homey acquisition has changed the route plan or not.
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The integration is through another connectivity protocol that is supposed to be use by multiple brands, so itâs not really a specific integration with SmartThings. If any, the purchase of Homey should strengthen that interoperability, theyâre also interested in being able to control other devices since they already said they were interested in gathering usage patterns.
By the way, that protocol feels like it overlaps with Matter too much, so I donât think it will gain much traction.
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I think Iâve seen reported that LG has the intention of facilitating a sort of âmulti-hubâ setup by putting Matter hubs in itâs appliances, in the same way as Samsung. Could be interesting.
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Thatâs right, some LG TVs are already Matter hubs for the LG ecosystem, fun fact⌠they will also double as Matter hubs for Google Home like Google TVs (even when they donât run Google TV):
Hubs are going to be everywhere, although most donât include Thread so people will still be confused when their new Matter device does not work with their Matter hub. Reason why Nanoleaf latest products are Matter over WiFi instead of Thread.
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Matter over Thread
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Looks nice for the price. I do wish it had Apple HomeKey, though.
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Lots of good and interesting details in that article. But the last paragraph may be the most significant:
Based on its track record in this space, Iâm not convinced LG will actually follow through on all these promises. But Iâd like to be proven wrong.
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While there are some errors in terminology (controller vs commissioner), I donât disagree with the basic premise of the article.
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Having all the players agreeing on a common local language independent of connectivity is no small feat, even if it can lead to less âuser retentionâ since youâre not tied to specific ecosystems, you donât need vendor accounts and you can even use multiple ecosystems at the same time. Of course they have to provide features to justify locking you in like music sync and fancy light animations.
However, the problem is not Matter per se, the article talks about dumbing down lights for instance. The feature set of a Matter smart light is amazing, mostly inherited from Zigbee, way beyond just on/off/brightness/colour which is what is usually exposed to smart home platforms and with functionality that not even vendor apps have. But users donât have a way to use those features because most popular smart home platforms donât expose them.
Thereâs this chicken and egg situation. Iâve been telling manufacturers to implement certain features or reporting bugs in features not usually exposed to the end user. The answer is usually âsmart home platforms donât support itâ (so why bother). And I guess from the smart home point of view will be similar âif devices donât implement transitions / scenes / bindings / whatever, why should we waste time supporting them and creating a nice user interface?â.
Still, Iâd say weâre still on the early adopters phase but itâs looking good.
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I saw this yesterday and it pretty much exactly reflects my beliefs that it is all a bit of a mess that will be a barrier to uptake and also put people off lured in by the false promises.
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This bad habit of looking at the CSA site for certified products only generates hype but with no release dates it can take forever to launch 
Tapo is going to launch the H110 Matter bridge that apparently includes support for IR control. I have the H100 for some bridged devices (a motion sensor, three T&H sensors and two buttons that cannot be used through Matter yet).
While I try to stay away from bridges, right now it was the most cost-effective solution. If they release one with IR control Iâm going to find it useful, good thing about Tapo at least in Spain is that you find them even on local superstores.
Itâs unknown if the IR part will be exposed to Matter. I believe Matter does not support IR blasters as a device type, but it has other means. Vendors usually expose IR appliances as virtual switches so you can switch the appliance on and off. Also with scenes it should be possible to expose Tapo shortcuts controlling IR devices, but scenes is not really a thing yet in Matter (itâs provisional, has changed in Matter 1.3, nobody supports itâŚ).
And LG has even more devices certified, a little temperature and humidity sensor and a single round button, I need that button too!
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