Ikea HomeKit hub with Matter support set for November release

Ikea's updated Homekit-compatible Dirigera smart home hub with Matter support is anticipated to go on sale in Europe in November for under $60.

Ikea launched its Dirigera smart home hub in May, as a replacement for the existing Tradri hub. Months later, it now seems that Ikea is preparing to put the hardware on sale to the public.

An online store listing spotted by TechGamingReport shows it will be going on sale in Germany for 59.99 euros. Further research byThe Verge shows the hub as appearing on the Spanish and Norwegian websites as well, with the latter adding sales will "start in November."

While release details for other territories remains largely unknown, the release is a good sign for HomeKit users. The Dirigera will handle more product categories and deal with more devices in total than the Tradri hub, as well as support Matter.

Matter is a standard that Apple and other tech giants are supporting, as a way for smart home devices to more easily communicate with each other. By using a single protocol, the standard should allow for more interoperability between competing smart home platforms, and get more hardware designed for one platform to more readily work with others.

Matter-certified devices will work with HomeKit, the Google Assistant, Amazon's Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, and other platforms.

Along with Matter and HomeKit, the Dirigera hub will also be able to communicate using Wi-Fi, Thread, and Zigbee, enabling it to work with many different devices. Its physical connections include an ethernet port and USB-C, with the latter used for power.

As well as using HomeKit, Ikea is also including support for a new Home Smart app, which will be released alongside the hub.

11 Comments

macbootx 10 Years · 72 comments

About 2 years ago

I think Matter is a badly needed shot in the arm for not only HomeKit but for the whole Smart Home industry.

tobian 9 Years · 155 comments

According to IKEAs customer services folks it’s comming in December in Czech Republic as well. yupee!

appleinsideruser 5 Years · 663 comments

Er, wasn’t one of the benefits of Matter that hubs weren’t needed?

dewme 10 Years · 5775 comments

appleinsideruser said:

Er, wasn’t one of the benefits of Matter that hubs weren’t needed?

This device isn’t really a “hub” in the traditional sense of a communication (e.g., Ethernet) hub. It’s more of a hub like you see with Thunderbolt “hubs” on the market that provide a single centralized device that incorporates connectivity to multiple other communication networks and buses like USB, HDMI, Ethernet.

Matter is an application layer protocol that runs on top of multiple communication layers, the most important are IP based ones being Thread and WiFi. If all of your Matter devices are WiFi based and your client is on WiFi and supports Matter, then yeah, you don’t need a separate “hub, router, gateway” type of device.

However, if you want to access Matter devices that use Thread from a WiFi client you need a border router to route between WiFi and Thread. It’s still IP based end to end, but the WiFi and Thread link layers, physical layers, and IP address spaces are not the same.

This “hub” device also supports Zigbee devices, which are not IP based. Going from WiFi to Zigbee requires a gateway because it’s bridging protocols.

Matter devices can also communicate via Bluetooth.

So this Matter “hub” is actually a border router and gateway that allows Matter compatible clients to communicate with wide range of Matter compatible devices as well as legacy Zigbee devices.