For sure. And zigbee offers some things that Thread does not. Like device binding.
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Not exactly... Zigbee is self healing and can make use of multiple Zigbee repeater devices. If one fails, devices will find another repeater to communicate through. However, Zigbee can only have one Zigbee Coordinator. It that fails, the mesh is down.
Thread, on the other hand, has the advantage of being designed to accommodate multiple Thread Border Routers (TBR), each of which can take over for the others when they go offline. Thus, if your Thread mesh has an AppleTV 4K, an Amazon Echo 4, and an Apple Homepod Mini, any of these could be taken down for a firmware upgrade, while the others step in and take over any TBR duties that one device may have been performing.
The TBRs are what bridges the Matter over Thread devices to the Matter over Ethernet/WiFi devices, and thus to the Matter Controller devices. Matter also allows for multiple Matter Controllers within the same Matter network.
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Exactly ....
This is what I am aiming to - high redundancy. No single point of failure.
Therefore I asked why the new c8 does not have it on the roadmap (or maybe it does...).
Well, the good news is that for high redundancy in a Thread network, Hubitat really does not need to add Thread support to their hub. As I mentioned, users will probably end up with multiple devices in their homes that can act as a Thread Border Router.
Hubitat really only needs to implement the Matter Controller portion, in order to communication with the Matter Thread Border Routers on the home network.
Of course, this does mean that Matter is pretty dependent on one's choice of home networking equipment. If your TBR connects via WiFi to a single WiFi Access Point, then that AP becomes the single point of failure. Or, if it connects via Ethernet, the network switch can become the single point of failure.
Matter is an interesting architecture. However, for it to succeed, all vendors must adhere to the standards and get their devices properly certified for cross-platform interoperability for everything to actually work as envisioned by the committee that created it.
Right now, I am very happy with my Zigbee mesh network hosted by my Hubitat hub. It is simple, reliable, and very performant. I believe it will take a few more years to see what becomes of Matter/Thread.
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I mentioned they don’t publicly discuss roadmaps, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have one internally.
I think it’s unlikely we’ll hear too much about Matter or Thread capabilities in the C8 (or future hardware revisions) until they decide to move things forward publicly.
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Yep, my bad… I see now reading through Hubitats release post that it’s said to be Thread capble. Not that it’ll automaticly get thread.
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In my opinion, even though the Zigbee radio on the C-8 supports Thread, since they have to split time, I think it's gonna be best to have a separate Thread border router and mesh it with Hubitat through Matter, than having Thread devices directly on Hubitat. Especially since the Zigbee implementation is just flaky recently. Hopefully that gets resolved by then, but still, I'm not sure I would trust a single radio on the C-8 to handle both Zigbee and Thread reliably... and my Zigbee devices aren't going anywhere any time soon.
Therefore, whenever Hubitat supports Matter, I think the best route will be to add a Thread border router of some sort to your network and bridge your thread devices to Hubitat through it.
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Would it really matter much though? I have my wifi radios all sharing time between 4 different SSIDs with a different VLAN on each and I don't notice any differences between it and another access point dedicated to only one SSID and not sharing radio time..
I’m just saying, considering the issues hey have with the zigbee radios at the moment… I am not looking forward to more instability. Only time will tell I guess
I not entirely sure when I bought my first Hubitat Hub, but it must have been a couple of years before the pandemic. I'm still impressed and very much a cheerleader. If something goes wrong, chances are the I goofed (likely)--or a device failed (less likely). The hub is incredibly easy to "program" and it rarely skips a beat.
However, I bought my first (Eve) Thread motion detector just out of curiosity in May of this year. One motion detector has grown to five, and I've added a number of other Thread/Matter devices as well. I control them all with Hubitat, but through silly (and completely unnecessary) virtual switches talking to HomeKit via an Apple TV 4K (my path to the the Thread network). HomeKit is anything but reliable, if something goes wrong, it's more likely that HomeKit fails (as opposed to me goofing). And the "automation" interface (term used loosely) is both exhausting and lacking in terms of capabilities and reliability.
But my Tread/Matter devices (maybe 10-15 in total so far?) are very impressive and haven't failed one single time (at least not yet). The mesh is already much stronger than my Zigbee mesh with significantly fewer devices (life in an old brownstone in a very densly populated city is no fun when there are literally hundreds of devices competing on the same ol' 2.4GHz frequency). Add to that the Thread devices are lighting fast compared to Zigbee and... i just made up my mind this morning. I ordered 12 new Thread motion detectors and a bunch of other devices to complete the transition of battery operated devices to Thread. My "test" in no longer a test, I'm in. Completely.
I understand the skeptical voices and I am, too, skeptical that the big guys (Apple, Google, Amazon, etc.) will in fact stay true to the standards (sadly, there are already proof that they may not be). But I'm not even a tiny bit skeptical about Thread itself (and it's too early too tell if Matter will in fact be a real, workable, standard). But with few exceptions, virtually all device manufacturers (anyone from the really big boys to the smallest device makers) claim they'll turn themselves into Thread and Matter companies, although some of them are clearly half-assing it (here's looking at you, Philips Hue).
But my love for Hubitat is still strong. So now I'm facing a real dilemma. The silly workarounds I use to communicate with Thread are ok for now, but it can't last. I sincerely hope Thread (and thus Matter) is priority 1A for the C-9 Hub (or whatever it will be called). Please, please don't make me leave the company and platform that has helped me so beautifully over the years. Please.
Yes, all of the above constitutes a shameless petition. But one with nothing but good intentions. Guys and gals, I'm not the brightest bulb in the socket, but I'm convinced. Thread (and maybe Matter) is here to stay and coming at us at a furious pace. Hubitat: please, please don't get left behind. This train has left the station and it's picking up speed fast. And I personally need to decide fairly soon what to do. Is a secret roadmap really that smart in this case, I ask humbly?
All of the above is, obviously, IMHO only. Again, not the brightest bulb in the socket but...
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Matter will be implemented for the C8 later this year. The built in dual zigbee radio can do matter and thread.. It will later come to the c7 but that will be matter only.
Is there an official statement from Hubitat by any chance? I have searched high and low for something that confirms what you just mentioned about the C-8 (hey, it should be tehcnically possible) but have yet to see a company issued statmement that clearly says "Thread in 2023". Again, I'm not the brightest bulb in the socket so please forgive me if I have missed the obvious. Whatever I'm looking for tend to be somewhere right under my nose but this time... nothing.
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They have not made any firm, publicly stated commitments re: timing of possible Thread implementation, AFAIK.
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I actually don't doubt it'll happen. It has to. I just know that every last technology company suffers from resource constraints (understatement of the year?) but even so, a very tentative roadmap is better than no roadmap IMHO. Hubitat's guess is better than my guess, that much I know 
Hubitat usually does not publicly discuss feature roadmaps. But I don’t doubt they’re thinking about how to integrate Thread and, potentially, Matter, in the future.
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Perhaps so. However, my past experience with Hubitat indicates they do not release timelines prematurely. What we do know is that the original C-8 announcement from @bravenel indicated that Matter/Thread compatibility are anticipated later this year.
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You're right, "expected later this year" is actually what I was looking for. And it makes me happy. I can put up with silly workarounds for another few months if I know the best of both worlds is around the corner. The best of both worlds = Hubitat and Thread. Matter is a good thing but honestly Matters a little less to me right now (and yes, I'm over the bad Matter dad jokes too 
)
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Many users would look forward to such an update, just keep in mind that wasn’t necessarily a commitment in terms of timeline or even ongoing prioritization of thread or Matter compatibility.
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In this implementation, isn't Matter just an add-on to the networking stack? If so, shouldn't it be available to C-5 devices too? (same CPU and everything, no reason why it shouldn't be possible)
For what it's worth, we aren't seeing a compelling reason to support Thread, and it's not in our current year plan. Two reasons for this: (1) there only needs to be a single Thread edge router in a home, and virtually everyone already has one, and (2) it remains unlikely that our Zigbee radio could support both Zigbee and Thread simultaneously, despite noise that suggests that might be a possibility. We will continue to evaluate this.
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