Ikea’s Dirigera sensible hub simply acquired a giant Matter enhance

It’s been greater than a yr since Ikea’s sensible hub acquired a Matter replace, however up till now, the Dirigea hub may solely act as a bridge between Ikea gadgets and present Matter networks. That’s about to vary because of a just-released firmware replace. 

Dirigea firmware replace 2.805.6 provides the Dirigea hub Matter controller capabilities, that means it may possibly now uncover and take cost of Matter gadgets, together with these from third-party producers. The firmware replace was confirmed by an Ikea rep on Reddit. 

Beforehand, the Dirigera hub may solely expose Ikea gadgets to different Matter controllers, such because the Apple HomePod mini, the Amazon Echo, and the Google Nest Hub. 

The budding Matter normal is a giant deal within the sensible house world, because it’s designed to unite such competing sensible house platforms as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple House, and Google House. However whereas Matter reveals promise, it’s a comparatively new normal that’s nonetheless experiencing rising pains. 

The flexibility to make use of the Dirigera hub as a Matter controller is nice information, however even higher is phrase that the firmware replace has activated the hub’s Thread radio. 

Particularly, Reddit customers and Matter Alpha are reporting that the Dirigera hub can now act as a Thread border router, a characteristic that enables the hub to straight connect with Thread-only Matter gadgets in addition to expose them to the web. Thread is a low-power wi-fi mesh protocol that’s a pillar of the Matter normal.

With its new performance, the Ikea Dirigera hub joins the Apple HomePod mini, Amazon Echo, and Google Nest Hub as gadgets which can be each Matter controllers and Thread border routers. 

A few Thread-enabled Ikea sensible gadgets had already been leaked earlier this yr: the Ikea Timmerflotte, a temperature and humidity sensor, and the Ikea Bilresa Twin Button, a sensible change. 

The revelation of these two Thread gadgets had beforehand fueled hypothesis that Ikea may quickly add Thread border router capabilities to the Dirigera hub, or maybe launch an all-new hub with a Thread radio. 

Matter controller performance for the Dirigera hub continues to be in beta, and also you’ll have to replace the hub in addition to the Ikea House app to present the characteristic a strive.