If you've ever struggled with IKEA's smart home ecosystem, it seems that things are about to get better. IKEA just debuted the DIRIGERA, an upcoming smart home hub that uses Matter (plus a brand new app) to streamline customers' smart home experience.
IKEA sells some of the most affordable and exclusive smart home devices, including smart blinds and buttons. But its ecosystem is convoluted. Setting up new devices is a labyrinthine nightmare of QR codes, random instructions, and glitches. The 8-year-old TRÅDFRI gateway bugs out when it's paired with too many devices, and the IKEA app is just weird.
"The new IKEA Home smart app will be convenient, easy to navigate, and user-friendly to lower the threshold for people looking into setting up a smart home. On top of that, it will make connecting devices to the DIRIGERA hub significantly easier."
But IKEA hopes to solve its smart home woes with the new DIRIGERA hub and smart home app. These products offer a faster, more intuitive setup process for new devices. And according to IKEA, they're more reliable than the old TRÅDFRI system.
Most notably, DIRIGERA is Matter-ready and doubles as a Thread border router. That means two things---it will integrate perfectly with all other Matter devices and improve the performance of all other Thread-enabled products in your home. IKEA is preparing itself and its customers for the future of smart homes, and that's awesome.
But IKEA hasn't revealed which of its products will support Matter. And those Sonos-made IKEA smart speakers are in a bit of an awkward position, as Matter won't support speakers at launch. (That said, Sonos is working with the CSA to bring Matter to smart speakers.)
Customers will also have to upgrade to the DIRIGERA if they want these new features. The hub launches this October for an unnamed price. And while it's Matter-ready, IKEA hasn't specified if it will support Matter at launch.
Source: IKEA