If you have been in the smart home world for any length of time, you may have some older gear that doesn’t support Matter, such as older Zigbee sensors, Z-Wave thermostats, and IR remotes for ceiling fans, etc. They all work fine, but they live outside your HomeKit setup. That is why this new update from Homey caught my attention. They are rolling out a new Matter Bridge app for Homey Pro and Homey Pro mini, and it gives HomeKit users a way to pull a huge range of non-Matter accessories right into the Home app as if they were native devices.
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HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything to do with Apple’s smart home framework.
What does the Homey experience bring?
Homey is one of those smart home hubs that tries to do a lot of things at once without forcing you to pick a single ecosystem. It supports a wide range of devices across Zigbee, Z-Wave, infrared, Thread, Matter, Wi-Fi, and more, depending on the model you have. The idea behind Homey is that you bring all your smart home gear into one place, regardless of whether it comes from different brands or protocols. Homey handles device connections and automations, and then you can control everything through the Homey app or expose it to other platforms, such as HomeKit, through Matter. It is basically a universal translator for smart home devices that do not naturally speak the same language. In my head, it’s similar to HomeBridge, but in a commercially supported setting.
What the Matter Bridge app actually does
The new Homey Matter Bridge app is essentially a translator for old gear to Matter. Homey already supports a wide range of protocols, including Zigbee, Z-Wave, IR, 433 MHz, Thread, and Matter. With this new app, anything that Homey Pro or Homey Pro mini can control can now be exposed to HomeKit, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, or Home Assistant as a Matter-native device. For Apple users, this means that devices not designed initially with HomeKit in mind can now be integrated into the Home app alongside your other devices.
This integration is not cloud-based control either. The primary benefit of Homey is that automations and communication occur locally. That is great for speed and keeps your smart home gear running even if your internet goes out. The Matter Bridge app continues that trend by exposing accessories to Matter controllers in a secure and fast way.
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Why HomeKit users should care
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