One of the promises of Matter is to create an open ecosystem of smart home products that you can use with your preferred platform, meaning products won’t have to be designed for HomeKit, but rather all Matter-compatible products will work with HomeKit. The SwitchBot Hub 2 is designed to work with Matter and will enable other products in the SwitchBot ecosystem to integrate with HomeKit. The first product to be released with this capability will be the SwitchBot Curtain. Read on to learn more about SwitchBot’s HomeKit integration.
In addition to providing Matter compatibility for SwitchBot products, the new SwitchBot Hub 2 also includes a thermo-hygrometer function, allowing users to check the temperature and humidity from the Home app on iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. You’ll also be able to gather information from Siri over the HomePod mini as well.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the first SwitchBot product to support HomeKit through the Matter standard will be the SwitchBot Curtain, which will be available in late February when the Hub 2 is officially released. At CES, customers can control the SwitchBot Curtain on the Apple Home App via Matter to get a sense of how it’ll work. SwitchBot is at booth 53635, Venetian Expo Halls A-D. The final certification for Matter support is expected to be completed in late February. Other SwitchBot products will gradually support HomeKit through Matter throughout the year as well.
The Hub 2 is a versatile device, offering a range of features beyond its Matter compatibility. It includes two Scene Keys on the front that can trigger Scenes preset in the SwitchBot App as well as control other SwitchBot products like the Switchbot Button Pusher. The Hub 2 also has an IR control function with larger coverage than the Hub Mini. Finally, it has a built-in light sensor that allows the LED display to adjust its brightness. Overall, the Hub 2 is a powerful 4-in-1 hub for controlling and integrating your SwitchBot products with Matter.
9to5Mac’s take on SwitchBot and HomeKit
I think 2023 will be the year where we really see Matter becoming the default for smart home products, and that’s a huge win for Apple and users who love HomeKit. HomeKit has always been the platform that has less device compatibility compared to Alexa, and now it’ll be on a more even playing field. SwitchBot has made some unique products over the years, but it was a bit of a workaround to make them compatible with HomeKit. I wrote about my experiences with it back in early 2022. As Matter support comes to more products, it will allow for some interesting use cases. While I’d prefer if devices saw firmware updates for direct Matter compatibility, this new hub should help speed up the process while providing some nice use cases as well. Once the hub is released, I’ll have a full review of how it functions within the HomeKit ecosystem.
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