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IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products

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Re: IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products

#11

Post by close04 »

63stack wrote: post #2

I have never heard of Matter before, but I was super satisfied with Ikea's zigbee products. Does anyone know why they switched?

Zigbee is the wireless network protocol. The equivalent to it on the Matter side is called Thread, also based on Zigbee from what I read (was developed by Connectivity Standards Alliance, formerly known as Zigbee Alliance). Zigbee and Thread operate at OSI L1-3, Matter is L3/4-7.

Matter is a communication protocol adopted by a lot of manufacturers but I think practically for the buyer the real benefit is that you no longer need a bucket of hubs for each of the device ecosystems one might use. It's more future proof so it makes sense IKEA would add support for it in their hardware including existing hubs I believe.

Re: IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products

#12

Post by noir_lord »

pta2002 wrote: post #7
63stack wrote: post #2

I have never heard of Matter before, but I was super satisfied with Ikea's zigbee products. Does anyone know why they switched?

It’s a newer standard backed by multiple vendors (importantly, Apple, Google and Amazon, who make the devices that you ultimately want to use to control these things). Zigbee is great for communication instead of WiFi, but it’s just one part of the equation - it says nothing about the specific commands a device will respond to. You couldn’t pair a Philips remote with an IKEA lightbulb. Matter attempts to fix it by ac…

Matter is definitely a step in the right direction, SDK is under Apache and the actual spec is freely available[1]

Might give it a year or three and if they continue on that path I might have to reasses my "No smart devices in the house" "rule".

[1] https://csa-iot.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/22-27349-001_...

Re: IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products

#14

Post by ramses0 »

Mistletoe wrote: post #8

Tangential but I was wondering if anyone knows of a thermostat that can work with a security system for the most simple and accurate location sensing possible- when I press away on the alarm it turns the HVAC to eco type settings to save energy. I used to get this with Google Nest and location sensing from my phone but Google as always is killing my generation of Nest thermostat. I think I’d like to get away from loc…

Certainly there's something with home assistant (or apple shortcuts) you can do? There's some nest firmware replacement that's a bit DIY, but HomeAssistant and friends will be the way to bridge between differing home automation bits/services.

Re: IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products

#15

Post by milliams »

pta2002 wrote: post #7
63stack wrote: post #2

I have never heard of Matter before, but I was super satisfied with Ikea's zigbee products. Does anyone know why they switched?

It’s a newer standard backed by multiple vendors (importantly, Apple, Google and Amazon, who make the devices that you ultimately want to use to control these things). Zigbee is great for communication instead of WiFi, but it’s just one part of the equation - it says nothing about the specific commands a device will respond to. You couldn’t pair a Philips remote with an IKEA lightbulb. Matter attempts to fix it by ac…

https://www.theverge.com/tech/814928/ikea-matter-thread-diri... has some quotes from IKEA saying that they're using Thread. It's strange they didn't say in this release though.

Re: IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products

#16

Post by teamonkey »

pta2002 wrote: post #7
63stack wrote: post #2

I have never heard of Matter before, but I was super satisfied with Ikea's zigbee products. Does anyone know why they switched?

It’s a newer standard backed by multiple vendors (importantly, Apple, Google and Amazon, who make the devices that you ultimately want to use to control these things). Zigbee is great for communication instead of WiFi, but it’s just one part of the equation - it says nothing about the specific commands a device will respond to. You couldn’t pair a Philips remote with an IKEA lightbulb. Matter attempts to fix it by ac…

The way I understand it (please correct me) is that:

* The old Ikea Zigbee products will remain Zigbee. They will still require a Zigbee coordinator.

* The new products will be Matter-over-Thread. They require a Thread coordinator (or whatever the Thread equivalent is called).

* The existing Ikea hub has had a firmware upgrade that allows it to be simultaneously a Zigbee and Thread coordinator.

* The Ikea hub adds a Matter compatibility layer to the devices that don't natively support Matter.

Re: IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products

#17

Post by darkwater »

close04 wrote: post #11
63stack wrote: post #2

I have never heard of Matter before, but I was super satisfied with Ikea's zigbee products. Does anyone know why they switched?

Zigbee is the wireless network protocol. The equivalent to it on the Matter side is called Thread, also based on Zigbee from what I read (was developed by Connectivity Standards Alliance, formerly known as Zigbee Alliance). Zigbee and Thread operate at OSI L1-3, Matter is L3/4-7. Matter is a communication protocol adopted by a lot of manufacturers but I think practically for the buyer the real benefit is that you no…

You never needed a bucket of hubs with things like zigbee2mqtt or the Zigbee implementation in Home Assistant. That's enough a proof that the issue was not in the protocol. Actualyl you can also pair between them different vendors products (i.e. Ikea remote with Philips bulbs)

Re: IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products

#18

Post by j45 »

embedding-shape wrote: post #4

Does this mean they're abandoning Zigbee compatibility? In my experience, Ikea was making the most reliable Zigbee devices considering the price (as someone who just uses Zigbee and no Ikea hubs, just HA+Zigbee), and would be a shame to lose that, but maybe it's a clear sign I should investigate starting to use Matter more instead?

Investigate using home assistant and keep using both from one place.

Re: IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products

#19

Post by j45 »

teamonkey wrote: post #16
pta2002 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a newer standard backed by multiple vendors (importantly, Apple, Google and Amazon, who make the devices that you ultimately want to use to control these things). Zigbee is great for communication instead of WiFi, but it’s just one part of the equation - it says nothing about the specific commands a device will respond to. You couldn’t pair a Philips remote with an IKEA lightbulb. Matter attempts to fix it by ac…

The way I understand it (please correct me) is that: * The old Ikea Zigbee products will remain Zigbee. They will still require a Zigbee coordinator. * The new products will be Matter-over-Thread. They require a Thread coordinator (or whatever the Thread equivalent is called). * The existing Ikea hub has had a firmware upgrade that allows it to be simultaneously a Zigbee and Thread coordinator. * The Ikea hub adds a…

Helpful datapoints thanks.

Backwards compatibility is huge.

Re: IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products

#20

Post by j45 »

Mistletoe wrote: post #8

Tangential but I was wondering if anyone knows of a thermostat that can work with a security system for the most simple and accurate location sensing possible- when I press away on the alarm it turns the HVAC to eco type settings to save energy. I used to get this with Google Nest and location sensing from my phone but Google as always is killing my generation of Nest thermostat. I think I’d like to get away from loc…

Check out ecobee. It should set away mode how you need.
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