Matter

Does Hubitat have anything planned for Matter?

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There are a few threads where users and staff have asked and commented:

But to save you from reading those all: the biggest takeaway, I think, is that there are no Matter devices yet; chip supply constraints will probably push things out until (at least) the second half of this year; staff will probably evaluate the market, demand and feasibility at that point; and, with rare exception, they don't make future plans public, so we'll probably never know even if they are secretly working on it :slight_smile: (though they probably aren't at this point with something that barely exists).

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Is it even going to happen at all?
Aside: while talking about chip constraints I do wish cryptominers would stop buying up graphics cards. I am still trying to get a new gaming PC with a powerful GPU and they've all been out of stock for months! Can't someone invent a specialist cryptomining processor and leave the graphics cards to those of us who actually want graphics?

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Do we have News if current Habitat will work with new matter protocol?

don't hold your breath, the protocol isn't even finished, much less anyone making devices to support it.

My guess is it will be at least 2 years or more before it's a thing...

Look how long it took Home Kit devices to hit the market...

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What's not finished? They have full software stacks and full chip implementations now.

There are at least a couple dozen shipping products from something like 6-10 vendors.

Thread devices exist, but I have not seen any production Matter devices.

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Where did you get a list of these products? I did several Google searches and have not found any shipping products to date. In the interest of keeping this community free of “fake news”, please post your list of shipping products as I am very interested in this to to set up a second home and this list would be of great use to me. Thanks in advance for your help!

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This is the best lay man description I've found-

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MATTER is the generic common application communication language for the smart devices that all the smart home environments can understand (a SmartHome rosetta stone) with minimal bluetooth and then all Thread/WI-FI and/or wired Ethernet as the network connection layer to carry that common communication language among your individual devices.

Thread runs over the 2.4 GHz ISM frequency band and utilizes IPv6 natively, but does not use the same network protocol or router as your WiFi to do so. What we call Wi-Fi uses some variant of IEEE 802.11 whereas thread and zigbee use a different protocol, IEEE 802.15.4, over the 2.4 GHz frequency. Thread is essentially the evolution of Zigbee.

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So, you're right, I was confusing the two. Thread by itself isn't Matter. Matter is what's going to make all the different products compatible with each other. This is the reason that Thread is still specific to a single smart platform.

The good news is that Matter will be a software update, where Thread is hardware. So, if you want to future-proof your current purchases, get the ones with Thread hardware today.

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It also sounds like if your devices support LR-WPAN 802.15.4-2006 or later, and Zigbee uses this standard already, it is theoretically possible for a software upgrade to make it compatible with Thread. Assuming, the vendor chooses to offer upgrades versus only supporting Thread in new devices.

The difference between LR-WPAN 802.15.4 and Zigbee or Thread, is that 802.15.4 standard defines the hardware layers for the radio transmission media and Zigbee and Thread are the middle and upper layers in communications software- similar to the difference of WiFi vs a TCP/IP stack.

There are 50 companies testing devices with Matter, not all will use Thread. Expected availability is at the end of the year.

Thread already exists in the Apple Home universe. The HomePod minis have Thread border routers. Eve and Nanoleaf have devices using HomeKit on Thread radios. iOS 15 was on track to have Matter support until the delays and was pulled. So expect Apple to be early out of the gate for full Thread/Matter functionality.

Some Zigbee 3 radios are flushable to Thread, but with different levels of effort. For example, Inovelli has said their new Blue Zigbee dimmers will be flashable to Thread. Their first generation devices will require a cable to flash. The second generation will be OTA.

Actually, IOS/ipad/macos/HomePod 16 is in beta and will have Matter capability.

But the beta doesn't even support Matter yet, so Mike's statement is true. :slight_smile:

The other half of his comment is a guess/opinon, and we'll have to wait and see on that. But it's probably not really what he meant; even if/when this does happen, this is still more of a case of a "hub" supporting it (or claiming to in the future, I guess) without any actual devices that use it (yet?).

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I would say give it a year or so. I isn't ready for primetime yet.

Tom Petty Waiting GIF

My read was that more or less the standard is ready now, but device development is still in the work. My only worry with Hubitat is that presumably getting something out for the end of the year would involve already being working on the design process. The radio silence is hard therefore.

Hubitat never talks about future plans, so the silence doesn't indicate anything.

What happens at the end of the year? Is there some deadline I am not aware of?

I doubt that Matter devices will be ready in any significant numbers in the next year if not longer. Hubitat needs devices to test to build drivers. That is the holdup with Z-wave Long Range and Hubitat. Hubitat announced a long time ago (18 months now) that the hub is Z-Wave LR ready, and would turn it on once those devices were available. Here we are years after the LR devices were supposed to be released, and nothing.

There are more important things that Hubitat need to address right now. There are many devices that don't have drivers that are available for purchase, with Frient being one that Hubitat has hinted they are working on. I am sure there are others too. I would rather have real devices like Frient added to Hubitat than imaginary ones like Matter.

In my opinion, and I have said this before, the involvement of these companies like Amazon, Comcast, and Google have created a :poop: show. Probably the 3 least trusted and most mismanaged companies in the world, and everyone is holding their breath for Matter.

Judge Judy Eye Roll GIF

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No. It would be well past that to be released by the end of the year. So if nothing has shown up on fccid.io by now, it seems unlikely there’ll be a new hub released this year.

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I still can't see how Matter is going to offer me anything. There will still be 101 zigbee interpretations and different z-waves in each country. Is Matter instead of different radio signals? If not, I can still only pair what will pair unless I buy a whole new system.

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Hubitat needs no new hardware to work with Matter. As Matter is all software.

The new hardware is Thread and is not required either in devices or controllers. If one has Thread devices there is a requirement for a single border router somewhere in the Thread network. Many newer Zigbee 3.0 radios can be flashed over to Thread.

Signify is planning on the Hue bridge to be Matter compliant very early, working with all Hue bulbs. Because they are implementing Matter in software on the bridge. The Zigbee bulbs are not changing. Nor is the bridge.

Depends on what you mean by "Matter devices". As stated, Signify is planning on pushing a software update to their bridge early. Apple is already using Thread radios for device connections (including working as a border router). Nanoleaf and Eve have devices that use Thread for their HomeKit connectivity. All Apple, Nanoleaf, Eve need is the final Matter spec to be released and will switch over. Inovelli has a new line of Zigbee dimmers that they intend to make Thread-able.

Thread/Matter is not just an Amazon/Google/Apple project. The end device makers are all on board because it makes it easier for them to work in all the big 3 ecosystems, and also be independent of them. It's not like LG, Assa Abloy, Signify etc are likely to favor one of the 3 over the others.

While I understand where you're coming from, it's hard to believe that these three companies would be as big as they are if what you are saying is true on as wide a scale as you believe.