IKEA will release Matter-supported smarthome hub and new app in October
IKEA announces the Dirigera smart home hub. It will be launched in October together with a new IKEA Home smart app. The new hub can connect to more different products than the existing Trådfri hub and the new app should be easier to use.
Technical details about the Dirigera hub and the new app IKEA has not yet disclosed. The furniture giant only says that the smarthome hub will receive support for Matter. According to the announcement, the Dirigera hub can handle “more product segments” and link more products than the existing Trådfri hub. IKEA’s current smart home hub can be linked to smart lighting, roller blinds, switches and remote controls. The Trådfri hub has been in existence since 2014.
The combination of the new hub and app will work faster and easier, according to IKEA. Linking new devices to the smarthome hub will be significantly faster, the company says. From the app, products can be divided into groups, or controlled individually.
IKEA says users can continue to use the Trådfri hub. Existing smart home products from the brand can also be linked to the new hub. IKEA also indicates that it will support ‘away from home’ functionality in the first half of 2023. This indicates the ability to control smart home equipment from an external network. It is not yet known what the Dirigera hub will cost. IKEA offers the current Trådfri hub for 30 euros.
Matter should become a universal open standard for smart home devices. Its setup began in 2019, when Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Google, SmartThings and The Zigbee Alliance announced a partnership. Since then, more parties have joined, including IKEA, Huawei, NXP and Signify. The release of Matter has been delayed several times and is scheduled for this fall.
IKEA Conductera