IKEA has introduced its new smart home hub and will support the industry-standard Matter for smart home devices, which will be launched soon and is designed to make it easier to connect gadgets of various brands.
Dirigera hub and applications are designed to greatly simplify the management of your smart home devices by connecting them across a single centralized platform – whether made by Amazon, Google, Apple or IKEA (via The Verge (opens in a new tab)). This will be possible thanks to Matter, a new connectivity standard that will soon be adopted by many of the largest smart home brands.
The Dirigera cartridge is a small disk that is 2.7 cm high and 11.2 cm in diameter. It will integrate with the new IKEA Home app and, once certified Matter, will support all existing IKEA smart home devices as well as third-party devices that support the Matter standard.
We don’t know yet how much the Dirigera mushroom will cost when launched, but the current Trådfri Gateway IKEA center is selling for $ 40 / GBP 25 / $ 59 AU. The new facility is expected to launch in October.
What’s happening?
This is what is called an interoperability protocol. In less jargon, this means that smart home devices from manufacturers who subscribe to the standard will be able to operate across ecosystems.
So instead of having to run different smartphone applications on your phone for all your different peripherals from Amazon, Google, Apple, Samsung and others, you should be able to merge and control most of them through a single interface.
Once Matter is launched, you won’t have to worry so much about whether a smart home device is exclusive to the Google or Amazon ecosystem – although some older gadgets won’t be upgraded to support Matter, so you’ll need to check compatibility.
On Google I / O 2022, the company announced that its Google Home, Google Home Mini, Google Nest Mini, Google Nest Hub, Google Nest Hub (2nd generation), Google Nest Hub Max, Google Nest Audio and Google Nest Wifi will all be Support Matter.
Meanwhile, Amazon has confirmed that its 4th generation smart Echo speaker and Eero network routers will support Matter – although it is not yet clear which of its older Echo devices it will be.
Matter doesn’t have a fixed release date – it’s expected to launch later this year – but you can expect various smart home manufacturers to be happy to let you know which of their technologies support this standard when it’s finally released.
Will you care about Matter?
Probably not right away. If you’re like us, you’ve probably based most of your smart home purchases on what is compatible with the gadgets you already own. If you’re using an Amazon Echo smart speaker, you’ve most likely bought a Ring device through Nest Doorbell, for example from Google.
You’ll notice the difference the next time you expand your smart home settings, because your list of compatible devices will be a little longer than before. Whether you crave a smart speaker, TV, thermostat or light bulb, you’ll find at least one that supports Matter.
As mentioned above, you’ll still have to double-check that the technology you’ve looked at is Matter-certified – even your own Symfonisk IKEA speakers (manufactured in collaboration with Sonos), such as a table lamp and picture frame. , it has not yet been confirmed that they support it, but the list of partner brands is now more than 100.
Not only will this help you find the technology that best suits your needs, but it also means you can save money by purchasing equipment because you will not be limited to a single brand ecosystem.