Two years after the Dirigera hub was announced with the promise of being Matter-compatible, Ikea is finally releasing non-beta firmware to facilitate this.
Ikea's Dirigera smart home hub
, Ikea announced the Dirigera home hub that would work with its range of smart home devices. It was said to have Matter support, which would allow it to connect to smart devices from just about any manufacturer, including Apple and its HomeKit range.
But at the same time, an Ikea spokesperson said that the company was working "toward Matter certification step-by-step, and the first update is expected in the next couple of months." So, no, it didn't have Matter support.
It took months for even the non-Matter version of Dirigera to become available in the US. But by May 2024, Ikea was again announcing Matter support for the hub.
Now even more months later, Ikea is announcing Dirigera Matter support. The company is specifically stating that from it will work after September 11, 2024.
"IKEA is taking the next step in creating a better and simpler smart home experience with the introduction of Matter support for the Dirigera hub," said the company in a statement. "Starting from 11 September, any smart products connected to the Dirigera hub will be compatible with smart home platforms that use the Matter standard."
"We understand how important it is for our customers to have smart products that work effortlessly together," said Damir Smrkovic, Platform and Technology leader. "[Now users] no longer need to worry about compatibility -- everything will just work together, easily and efficiently."
Despite the years-long delays, Ikea was actually one of the first board members of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), which maintains the Matter standard.
Ikea says that it has more updates and announcements to follow.
Separately, while Ikea has been slow to develop Matter support, Apple has been all in on it -- despite the standard having difficulty being adopted.