Ikea begins beta-testing Matter on its Dirigera hub

Ikea’s Dirigera hub, its new hub for controlling its line of connected devices, may soon get Matter support. While promised when the hub was announced in May 2022, Matter for the Dirigeria didn’t materialize within a “couple of months” of the product launching, as initially announced. It was then delayed again last November. But the company has now announced the rollout of Matter for the hub in beta.

“We are excited to unveil the first version of Matter support for the Dirigera hub, available now for beta users through the Ikea Home Smart app,” David Granath, range manager at Ikea Home Smart told The Verge.

The beta focuses just on lighting products initially, which I assume means lightbulbs, motion sensors, remotes, and possibly smart plugs, but Ikea has not confirmed the exact devices. Granath says the company plans to work through a testing phase and gather feedback from beta users to “help improve the overall experience when the update is expanded to include all customers and more products in the future.”

Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

This aligns with how many other companies have rolled out support for Matter, which has had a bumpy start. Philips Hue also implemented a beta test for upgrading its Zigbee lighting bridge, but the full rollout was fraught with issues, based on my testing.

The addition of Matter should mean that Ikea lights can be exposed to any compatible Matter platform through the Dirigera hub. However, Dirigeria already supports Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home, so you may not see much difference if those are the platforms you use.

As Granath pointed out, the Hub is acting as a bridge here, not as a Matter controller or Matter device. You will need a Matter controller from the platform you want to use the lights in, such as an Apple HomePod, Amazon Echo, or Google smart speaker.

Additionally, while Ikea has said previously that the Dirigera can support Thread, there has been no announcement about enabling the hub as a Thread border router, another area related to Matter that has been problematic.

Clearly, Ikea is taking things slow and steady, which may not be a bad thing. The beta appears to be a closed one, as I couldn’t find any links or resources for signing up to be a beta tester, and Ikea didn’t provide a timeline for a public release. I’ve reached out to Ikea for more details.

Image: Ikea

In the meantime, Ikea has been beefing up its smart home in other ways. It delivered on its promise of native out-of-home support last November with the new Control Anywhere feature for the Dirigera. “This makes it possible for our users to stay connected to their homes from anywhere in the world,” says Jonas Söderqvist, Ikea digital product area manager. “Products connected to Dirigera can be managed outside of the home, through another network than your home WiFi.”

The furniture giant also launched three new sensors around the same time. At €10 each, the Parasoll (door and window sensor); Vallhorn (motion sensor); and Badring (leak sensor) are all Zigbee sensors that work with the Dirigera hub. It also appears that Ikea has a new smart plug on the horizon. Reddit user johnvogel found a new Tretakt smart plug for €10 at his local Ikea store in Germany. The product doesn’t appear to be on Ikea’s website yet, but johnvogel says it’s much smaller than the existing $15 Ikea Tradfri plug and includes a Rodret remote and a physical button on the plug.