“The standardization process means more companies are sharing the workload of developing for this.”
IKEA is launching over 20 new Matter-over-Thread smart home devices that work with Apple Home, Alexa, Google Home, and SmartThings without needing IKEA’s own hub. Remotes starting at around $4. They’re even keeping backward compatibility with old Zigbee stuff through Touchlink. The catch for US buyers is that nothing ships until January 2026 at the earliest. IKEA might be the company that finally makes the smart home standard actually matter by making it cheap enough that normal people buy in.