It was May 2022 when Ikea proudly announced its Diregera hub, bringing Matter support to the company’s smart home line-up. Some two years later, and rather later than scheduled, that upgrade is finally available.
But better late than never, as Matter support means that you can now control any compatible Ikea smart home product via Apple’s Home app …
Matter is essentially HomeKit compatibility
The Matter standard was created by the Connectivity Standards Alliance as a way of ensuring that any smart home device will work in any ecosystem.
It’s supported by Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung, meaning that no matter which of the key smart home systems you use, Matter-compatible devices will work.
For Apple users, then, a Matter-compatible device is functionally equivalent to a HomeKit-compatible one.
Ikea’s Diregera smart home hub
Ikea offers a growing range of smart home products, from light bulbs to blinds, at impressively affordable prices. However, while HomeKit compatibility was promised, it took a very long time to arrive in the Trådfri hub, making Apple users somewhat wary.
The company’s Diregera hub promised to fix this for good, by offering a new Diregera hub, with Matter support.
The Verge reports that this upgrade has now arrived.
Ikea’s Dirigera hub can now be updated to act as a bridge between Ikea’s smart home devices and Matter-enabled systems. The software update builds upon early beta support by letting Ikea’s entire lineup of Zigbee-based smart home devices — like lights, blinds, controllers, air purifiers, and sensors — communicate with Matter-enabled devices from any company.
As the piece notes, it’s still a somewhat limited implementation, as you need a hub, when one of the core benefits of Matter is that it can be directly supported by the devices themselves, but it’s at least a solid step along the way.
Photos: Ikea
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