IKEA postpones HomeKit support for smart blinds until early 2020

IKEA has postponed the promised HomeKit support for its Fyrtur and Kadrilj smart blinds until early next year. Earlier, IKEA stated that Apple’s HomeKit would be supported from the fall of 2019. The company does not state a reason for the delay.

The delay came to light through a tweet to IKEA’s UK helpdesk, first spotted by the website HomeKit Hero. A user who wanted to know when HomeKit support is coming was answered with “early next year.”

The smart Fyrtur and Kadrilj roller blinds from the Swedish interior giant hit the market in August after much delay. Initially, the aim was to make the curtains compatible with Apple’s home automation ecosystem from their launch. When that deadline proved unfeasible, HomeKit support was first delayed until the fall of this year, and now again until early 2020.

The support for HomeKit should, among other things, ensure that users can automate IKEA blinds via their Mac, iPhone or iPad, and control them with speech via Siri. Users can already control the Fyrtur and Kadrilj curtains via the Google Assistant and IKEA’s own Home smart app.