Amazon does still save WiFi credentials to the cloud when you enter the password while setting up new devices like Echos, though.
And the checkbox defaults to checked, rather than unchecked, which I find particularly irritating.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201730860
That's slightly better. It means they didn't pre-program the bulb itself before shipping it, and they can do some security on the server side.
Still, as a user I didn't find it frustration-free. I found it surprising. And surprising is not great when we're talking about security.
Completely agree.
This is exactly how Matter will work. I'm currently running Phillips Hue via Matter connected to Google Home with CoCoHue bringing it into Hubitat. Right now, Matter only allows certain functions. With bulbs, that is on/off, brightness, color/color temperature. Switches are on/off and level. Plugs are just on/off. Groups and Scenes are not brought in via Matter. For Hue, that means the App is important along with either the built-in (groups) or two community apps (both groups and scenes). I don't think I would connect my Hue bulbs via Matter to Hubitat due to the loss of functionality, but my holiday plugs? Absolutely. I would gain local control via Hubitat and the Google Home app with voice control obviously being cloud dependent.
My view with Hubitat and Matter is that it would allow my family to use the Google Home app is a local control dashboard (which they already know how to use) rather than the dashboard provided by Hubitat. Automation would reside with Hubitat and Google can do the voice control.
Have you tested this by shutting off access to the outside internet to see if you can still control the hue bulbs from google home? I would be surprised if it works.
In order to commission a Matter device to a second controller, there's a specific process. The first controller that you joined a matter device to will need turn on pairing for that device. When pairing is turned on, it should give you a new Matter code. In the second Matter controller you 'add' a new device but you MUST use this new Matter code that was generated by the other controller. You CAN NOT use the Matter code printed on the physical device. That will NEVER work for additional controllers.
In the Apple Home app it's a little hidden how you add a device using the generated matter code. You have to tap through several onboarding screens before it let's you manually enter a Matter code. After that, it should add in 1-2 minutes to Apple Home.
In Apple Home you Add Accessory -> More Options -> My accessory isn't shown here -> Enter code -> --Paste in Matter pairing code from other controller-- Wait 1-2 minutes and it should commission in Apple Home.
I have almost 20 Matter devices in Home Assistant and Apple Home. Beware that if you have Matter commissioning or control issues (i.e. device becomes unavailable) in your controller's app, it could well be due to network issues. Matter relies on IPv6, mDNS and multicast. Any number of network devices including WiFi APs, ethernet switches, routers, etc. can break multicast in weird ways which negatively impacts the Matter experience. Settings like IGMP snooping, mDNS reflectors, multicast to unicast conversion (can happen on some WiFi APs) all could break Matter. Multiple VLANs are also a major headache if your Matter device and controller(s) are on different VLANs.
The Home Assistant Matter community is very vibrant with great developers. So I've learned a lot about the inner workings and the root cause of many issues people are seeing. In addition, Nanoleaf firmware is extremely buggy and has a high chance of negatively impacting other Matter devices because of their bugs.
Matter/thread is pretty young, but when it works it's really awesome. The networking issues and buggy vendor firmware are probably the top 2 issues that degrade the Matter experience.
Yep, this is what I discovered. (Not documented with the device, of course.) But even after discovering it, I was not able to get my HomeKit to import a Matter device from Alexa.
And even if it worked, 1-2 minutes to pair a single device to another controller is going to be a burdensome requirement for anyone with a large deployment. In comparison, right now when I add a new z-wave device to my Hubitat, the process to share it out to Alexa and HomeKit takes... maybe 15 seconds? And doesn't require copying and entering any individual codes. Just click a couple checkboxes and hit the ok button in Hubitat. And it's not much longer if I had added 30 z-wave devices. Just tick off all 30 of them and click ok. Boom, they show up in Alexa and HomeKit.
This is why I keep my architecture linear.
I just released that from 100++ devices I have 0 (zero) Matter enabled devices. This included the only one Thread device, which turned out to be working only with Apple thread routers (HomePod mini in my case) and nothing else!
When purchasing new devices, even if they use Thread for communication, make sure they have the Matter logo if you intend to bring them to Hubitat later.
Thread and Matter are two entirely different things. One is a networking protocol (Thread), while Matter is a SOFTWARE control plane protocol. Neither requires the other. And just because a device has one, it in no way means it has the other.
It should take the same amount of time or even less to share a Matter device. Copy code, paste on new controller, and you're done. The advantage of using Matter is that is local, as opposed to sharing device to either Alexa or Google Home, which would be via not one but two clouds.
I hope that becomes the case. It definitely did not work with the Matter bulb that Amazon sent me.
@bobbyD regarding the Hubitat matter / thread support.
If I buy the nanoleaf thread bulbs that only support Thread, can I pair them to a C8? Or if I pair them to a HomePod, will they be available to the C8 via matter?
The reason I don’t want to buy the Matter version of the nanoleaf bulbs is the lack of support for dynamic lighting.
Think of Thread and Wi-Fi as cars and Matter is the road. You can't drive a car without a road. Jokes aside, no, you can't connect Hubitat directly to a Thread network because Hubitat doesn't have a Thread radio, you'd need a method of making Hubitat talk to that network, either an API (local or cloud) or Matter.
Yes, if the device supports Matter (so you will need Nanoleaf Matter device for that).
Awesome! Thank you.
Just to make sure you're clear about these Nanoleaf devices...
If you have a "HomeKit over Thread" Nanoleaf device connected to your Apple Home instance, you cannot share that device via Matter to Hubitat or any other Matter Controller.
If your Nanoleaf device has had its firmware updated to support "Matter over Thread", and then you connect/pair it to your Apple Home instance, you can share that device via Matter to Hubitat or any other Matter Controller.
Just be aware that when you upgrade some devices from old, original "Homekit over Thread" firmware to "Matter over Thread" firmware, you may lose some of the original functionality. This is due to the fact that the Matter Spec must be followed, and it is currently a 'lowest common denominator' specification.
Please verify that your Nanoleaf devices will still support Apple's Dynamic Lighting feature if they are upgraded to "Matter over Thread" firmware. My guess is that they will not. 
Oh, that was the exact scenario I was asking about, was I unclear?
I’m aware of this which was why I wanted to use the older spec nanoleaf thread bulbs. The new matter version does not support dynamic lighting as it isn’t in the matter spec yet.
Download the Hubitat app
