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Ikea's Big Smart Home Push Arrives With 21 New Matter Devices (forbes.com) 50

Posted by BeauHD from the new-and-improved dept.
The Scandinavian furniture giant has unveiled 21 new ultra-affordable Matter-over-Thread smart home devices across three launch segments: lighting, sensors, and control. With prices starting at just a few dollars, Ikea is pushing hard to replace its old Zigbee lineup and become a serious player in the Matter ecosystem. Forbes reports: Back to the 21 new devices specifically and they are all native Matter ones though, so you don't actually need Ikea's hub to get involved, as Matter controllers from other brands will be able to sync them up to your existing smart home platform as well; provided that Matter controller also doubles up as a Thread border router. The good news is that many existing devices you may already have in your house - think Apple HomePod mini, Google Nest Hub Max, most of the recent Amazon Echo range, SmartThings hubs and even some Eero routers - all do.

This being Ikea, there are some quirky names involved... the new lineup starts with the Kajplats smart bulb range, with eleven bulbs in total, covering everything from compact spotlights to large decorative globes. They come in a mix of shapes, brightness levels, and finishes, with options for full-color control or just tunable white light. Ikea says each model now offers a wider intensity range and smoother dimming compared to the outgoing Tradfri lineup.
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Ikea's Big Smart Home Push Arrives With 21 New Matter Devices More

Ikea's Big Smart Home Push Arrives With 21 New Matter Devices

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  • Is Matter open ? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by greytree ( 7124971 ) on Friday November 07, 2025 @05:55AM (#65779714)
    I would like a good, open smart home solution.

    One that can't be made obsolete when the manufacturers get bored with it.
    One that doesn't route everything through Chinese or *any* external servers.
    One that open source hardware and software developers don't have to pay a license fee to make stuff for.

    Does Matter meet my requirements ?

    • Re:Is Matter open ? (Score:4, Funny)

      by registrations_suck ( 1075251 ) on Friday November 07, 2025 @06:11AM (#65779740)

      One that makes me feel like I feel when I'm with you?

    • Yes, it is (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 07, 2025 @07:04AM (#65779800)
      Yes it is open, Matter is even open source on Github [github.com], so you can implement it yourself, and it does not require an internet connection. The certification is the only part that is protected, like any logo based program (WiFi, Bluetooth etc), but you (as owner of your Matter network) can choose to allow all devices in your home (compare to side loading, does not require a fee). So hobbyists can create Matter devices.
      Home Assistant (Open Home Foundation) also supports Matter as an example of a Matter controller that you can commission your devices to. And, since Matter supports "multi-admin", you can commission and control your devices simultaneously in other systems as well, so not bound to any one ecosystem - by design.

    • Re:Is Matter open ? (Score:5, Informative)

      by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Friday November 07, 2025 @07:32AM (#65779844) Journal
      Matter is just an application layer comms protocol, and yes it's open. Often combined with Thread, a low power radio comms network (The new Ikea stuff uses it), in which case you need a Thread hub, or a Thread border router that acts as a bridge to your LAN and by extension to the Internet. Matter devices may or may not require the cloud.

      I have a bunch of thermostats and TRVs (Tado brand) that use Matter, and can be added to my own Matter hub (Home Assistant), to the manufacturer's cloud, or both. There are several brands that follow this model even if they don't use Matter. The good news is that you can continue to use these devices or add new ones even if the manufacturer has gone out of business or shut down their cloud. The bad news is... many of these devices need some configuring; often highly specific settings that can only be done through the manufacturer's app. They'll continue to work but you won't be able to reconfigure them.

      Matter allows devices to expose device settings, but it seems that not all manufacturers bother, or they are too specific to fit into the generic Matter types (for instance: heating schedules)
      • Thanks !

        Given your sig, one hopes that an incorrectly configured Matter device doesn't bring down the entire building.

      • Matter devices may or may not require the cloud.

        This is confusing to me. Why would a matter device *require* the cloud? Did you mean matter devices may or may not support the cloud? The whole point of matter was that it was open and universal so it stands to reason that the cloud part is optional.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by vlad30 ( 44644 )
      "This being Ikea, there are some quirky names involved"

      Frak

    • So what you want is Matter-enabled devices, and a HomeAssistant install.

      Fully open source.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      One that can't be made obsolete when the manufacturers get bored with it.

      Then think long and hard about IKEA. For many product lines, they seem to discontinue stuff frequently. If you bought one piece of furniture or light fixture, figure "Gee. That looks nice" and go back for matching pieces: Sorry. No longer available.

      I think they work a lot like Costco. Make a deal for a few container loads of something, slap a wierd name on it and put it in stores. Once their stock is finished, no more. I have had some luck in finding the original manufacturer and ordering through Aliexpres

    • Mostly. The good news is it's controllable locally, w/o needing the cloud.
      The bad news is that doesn't stop it from [wanting to] phon[ing] home. And as noted by a few others, there's no specific need for it to expose *everything* via Matter.
      And there is a license/fee for getting certified and that applies to every firmware update too.

  • IKEA is usually decent (Score:3)

    by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Friday November 07, 2025 @05:57AM (#65779716) Homepage Journal

    IKEA stuff is usually decent quality, and being a big popular brand is usually well supported too. Using Matter means no internet connection needed, should work with Home Assistant.

    Hopefully this shakes up the market a bit and drives down costs. Their air purifiers are good too, and are disrupting the market with their much lower prices.

  • As a subatomic particle, I would endorse this... (Score:5, Funny)

    by outsider007 ( 115534 ) on Friday November 07, 2025 @05:58AM (#65779718)

    But unfortunately I'm anti-matter.

  • Matter devices? (Score:4, Funny)

    by rossdee ( 243626 ) on Friday November 07, 2025 @06:00AM (#65779720)

    I would be more impressed if they were selling antimatter devices.

  • No tattling and what happens when support is dropped.

    • As long as you don't drop them at the same time as you drop the matter ones, you should be ok................SHOULD be.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      Read higher in the thread, Matter is just a standardized open-sourced protocol. Matter devices don't need to phone home and when support is dropped they'll still work.

    • Congratulations on not knowing what Matter is.

      Hint: it's what you're looking for, as you can combine it with HomeAssistant for a completely open and vendor-neutral stack for device automation.

      Maybe use Google sometime.

  • The great thing is you have to wander the whole fucking store to find the stuff, instead of just going to the aisle where it is.

    Every time I go to ikea, my BP must be 50 points higher when I leave than when I got there.

    • No you don't. Take a map at the start of the store and look up where you're going. Look for the (marked and signed) shortcuts. And don't be afraid to walk against the arrows if the shortcut is just past your section rather than before it. Yes, they'd like you to follow the arrows and walk round the whole store, but you don't have to.

    • Pro tip: walk the store in the opposite direction. When you walk like everyone else, you'll be trying to overtake slow walkers, couples with a stroller who somehow manage to block the entire 5m wide aisle, groups. Walk against the flow, and you'll be parting the crowds like Moses did the Red Sea. And if they appear not to make way, look slightly to the side as if you are not looking at them. They'll move.

      As a former landlord I have spent a considerable time in Ikea...

    • Order online for pickup so someone else wanders the store to find it.

  • ... at how many people will have this hackable spyware shit in their homes just to save them getting their fat backsides off the sofa to use a manual switch.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Hentes ( 2461350 )

      Ikea sells smart switches you can control with a remote, no internet connection required.

    • It's nice to be able to crank up the heating without getting out of bed, or turning a light at night with a voice command. Or having something warn you when you need to ventilate your house. Or have automatic zone control on your heating system. It's not just laziness.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Viol8 ( 599362 )

        "It's not just laziness."

        Noooo, not at all, nooo...

        "crank up the heating without getting out of bed"

        Nuff said.

        "warn you when you need to ventilate your house"

        If it stinks, open the window. That thing on the front of your face , called a nose, try using it.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by olddoc ( 152678 )
      So? What could someone do with the information that your garage door opens every weekday at 7am, opens again at 6pm, and your heat is set to 55 degrees during those times?

    • Re:I never stop being amazed (Score:5, Informative)

      by Junta ( 36770 ) on Friday November 07, 2025 @09:26AM (#65780048)

      "Matter-over-Thread" is actually a solid strategy compared to most 'cloud connected' wifi smart devices.

      This is more akin to Zigbee/Z-Wave. It's a local, non-internet scheme for local communication and control. You can get a totally local air-gapped Matter over Thread setup running without internet. It's if you pick a cloud-connected thread border router when you get in trouble, but you can roll your own, e.g. with Home Assistant platform providing a way forward.

      • This is more akin to Zigbee/Z-Wave.

        So why is IKEA moving from Zigbee to Matter? What's the advantage of having yet another protocol? Why does it take so long to settle on one standard? Zigbee, Z-Wave, Threads/Matter, what else? To use each of these protocols, you need to buy a different hub. It's not enough to install new software, you need new hardware too. You can't just install a Zigbee or Threads app on your computer and use it over the existing WiFi or Bluetooth hardware, even though they all use about the same frequencies. You h

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Junta ( 36770 )

          Z-Wave v. Zigbee largely stemmed from some awkward licensing to implement Z-Wave.

          I think the thing driving Matter-over-Thread seems to be a desire to have more commonality with IP stacks, notably Apple's Homekit not having the adoption Apple wanted and Apple deciding to maybe go with something that the device manufacturers will go for, but not wanting to have to have a totally different stack for dealing with Zigbee vs. wifi devices.

          So here's Matter, based on IP, with endorsement of 'Thread' as one of the t

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ksevio ( 865461 )

      That's the thing about new technology. It's amazing to some people that don't understand it, but once you get used to it, it becomes pretty standard. Take these new devices from Ikea - you could set them up to run locally, basically unhackable unless someone breaks in and takes them apart. Useful for stuff like turning on and off devices and saving power.

      It's like when the IR TV remote was invented, saved people from getting their fat backsides off the sofa to use a manual switch.

    • Matter over Thread devices are not directly internet connected. They connect to a local hub with a Thread radio in them.

      The hub could send your data to someone on the internet, but there are open sourced Thread hardware+software hubs that prevent that kind of shenanigans.

    • I'll never stop being amazed how often you demonstrate your cluelessness by commenting about something in a way demonstrating that you don't even know what the device does.

      Matter devices are able to be setup completely isolated on your network without external connection.

      Please get a clue, or does that Viol8 your principles?

  • Not sure if it's 1:1 with this new matter thing (I think it's their third push in this direction, at least), I can only recognize the door/window open sensor (even that is SLIGHTLY different), anyway I have a bunch of door sensors, leak/water sensors, and movement sensors. They all work over zigbee, went into Home Assistant with no fuss, I think they can do even firmware OTA updates. Best design ever for each specific use, batteries last forever (and work, even better, and report well the capacity for NiMh)

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