GoKawiilis a senior reviewer with over twenty years of experience. She covers smart home, IoT, and connected tech, and has written previously for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC, and US News.
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Ikea’s new Matter-over-Thread products were supposed to prove that the smart home could be cheap, accessible, and reliable. The highly anticipated line — which includes sensors, remotes, smart plugs, air-quality monitors, and smart bulbs — has most everything you need to build a smart home, with prices starting at $6. It’s an exciting idea, but it’s still not ready for primetime.
When I first got the Ikea devices in January, I had a lot of problems connecting them to my main platform, Apple Home. And it turned out I was not alone. Reddit forums and user reviews were full of reports of onboarding and connectivity issues. Many people were struggling to get devices connected to every smart home platform — from Apple Home to Google Home, and even Ikea’s own Dirigera hub. YouTuber Shane Whatley documented his experience trying to onboard to Apple Home in real time, and it’s fairly painful to watch.
While I waited for Ikea to figure out what was up, I tried some more creative troubleshooting in my home. The only (admittedly odd) fix I found was to force Apple Home not to use my main Home Hub, an Ethernet-connected Apple TV. Instead, I told it to use a HomePod, and was able to onboard an Ikea Bilresa button and a Grillplats smart plug that had repeatedly failed to connect. (Hat tip to Whatley for this idea.)
Why Apple would prefer I not use my high-powered, hardwired Home Hub is anyone’s guess. In any case, it didn’t last long. When I tried to add a Myggspray motion sensor as well, it failed. I then tried connecting the same Myggspray to Google Home using an Android phone, and it joined on the first try. Admittedly, I have a complicated network, but this points towards Apple causing issues, not my setup.
While Ikea said that “the products work seamlessly” for most customers, it did acknowledge the problems “some users” were experiencing. It published a troubleshooting page, and online forums quickly filled with advice on getting the gadgets connected. These range from simple “restart your phone” to the inexplicable “just leave it alone for a few days, and then it will work” to the more complicated “dive into your internet router’s network settings and enable IPv6” (Thread and Matter run over IPv6).
I had the most trouble connecting this Bilresa two-button remote to my smart home — and I was not alone. Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
One intrepid smart home reviewer, A Smarter House, painstakingly combed through all the proposed fixes and tried as many as he could on as many platforms as possible. This excellent deep dive by the YouTuber and blogger goes through the issues and what he tried that worked. His conclusion: There is not a single problem, but multiple, and the problems differ depending on the platform you are using.
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