IKEA will launch Matter-powered smart home hub and new app in October – Picture and Sound – News

IKEA announced the Dirigera smart home hub. It will be launched in October with the new IKEA Home smart app. The new hub can connect to more different products than the existing Trådfri hub and the new app should be even easier to use.

Technical details about Dirigera hub and new app IKEA has not revealed yet. The furniture giant says only that the smart home hub will receive support for Matter. According to the announcement, the Dirigera hub can handle “more product segments” and connect more products than the current Trådfri hub. An existing IKEA smart home hub can be connected to smart lighting, roller blinds, switches and remote controls. The Tradfri Center has been around since 2014.

The combination of the app and the new Hub will work faster and easier, according to IKEA. The company says that connecting new devices to the smart home hub will be significantly faster. From the application, the products can be divided into groups or controlled individually.

IKEA says that users can continue to use the Trådfri Centre. Existing smart home products from the brand can also be linked to the new hub. IKEA also indicates that it will support the “away from home” function in the first half of 2023. This refers to the ability to control smart home equipment from an external network. It is not yet known what the Dirigera hub will cost. IKEA offers the current Trådfri Center for €30.

The matter should become an open global standard for smart home devices. Its preparation began in 2019, when Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Google, SmartThings, and The Zigbee Alliance announced a partnership. Since then, more parties have joined, including IKEA, Huawei, NXP, and Signify. The release article It has been postponed several times and is due to take place this fall.