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Comment by pta2002 | Hacker News Reader

pta2002

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 actually defining the protocol that these devices use. It’s also fully local and open source, which is great. The actual transport layer can be WiFi, but it can also be Thread, which is a newer standard based off Zigbee, and AFAIK some Zigbee controllers can be reprogrammed to support it.

They don’t specify what transport layer they are using here, but considering the kind of devices they are showing (battery-powered remotes) it’s almost definitely Thread.

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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.

Helpful datapoints thanks.

Backwards compatibility is huge.

I could be wrong! I'm trying to work out the details myself!

But I have heard that old devices will be backwards compatible.

> or whatever the Thread equivalent is called

Thread Border Router (for info).

This is correct more or less. The Ikea hub has had the ability to bridge its zigbee devices to Matter for a while now. So in my case, Apple Home has no idea my lights and switches are not Matter, they just show up there even though they are actually zigbee.

Ikea recently did an update to enable the hub to be a Matter controller itself (over thread or Wifi). This means you can add matter devices to the Ikea hub directly and use the Ikea Home Smart app the control them instead of Apple Home or etc. You can add non-Ikea matter devices as well as Ikea matter devices (when they are released).

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_...

They've been talking about it for years and now they finally have a product?

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.

I guess because to most consumers, it doesn't actually matter. It uses matter and connects to a matter hub, the way it does it is an implementation detail unless you're making your own hub with homeassistant or something.

Even iPhones have been able to talk to thread devices directly for a while now, so it's a fairly transparent process.

“Backed by Google” is an anti-recommendation.

The alternatives are all closed-source protocols. A ton of things are backed by Google. It doesn't mean that they have anything to do with it other than them being consulted in its design and providing some official support. And considering Google makes the most popular mobile OS, and also the most popular TV OS (which is relevant considering it's smart home), it's good that they're in on it. Otherwise you end up with a fractured situation like you currently have with things like Airplay, Chromecast and Miracast, which are all the same thing with slightly different implementations because they couldn't agree on a protocol.

And I'd vastly prefer it that Google (and Apple, and Amazon, and Home Assistant, and IKEA, and Philips, and...) all agree on the same protocol than each vendor making up its own thing.

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