4 ms·

Just look at how long this page is: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/matter/ https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/matter/ Adding a device now

Just look at how long this page is: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/matter/ https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/matter/ Adding a device now requires a whole song & dance with bluetooth, a mobile phone and god knows what else. Meanwhile zigbee is: 1. Buy a zigbee stick, there are dozens, they all work great 2. Press the permit join button in home assistant 3. Press a button on the device for 10 seconds or 3 times or whatever 4. You're done and it works! Oh, and for some reason https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/matter/#experiment-with-matter-using-a-esp32-dev-board https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/matter/#experimen... involves google cloud in the process of me testing a device I created locally on my own network The final nail in the coffin is: > It is recommended to run the Matter add-on on Home Assistant OS. This is currently the only supported option. Other installation types are without support and at your own risk. So I can't even officially use this stuff without uprooting my entire operating system.

amanda99 1y ago
Look, I agree with you and as someone with Home Assistant, I much prefer Zigbee. But if you imagine a typical consumer, not a tech nerd, I think "smartphone and bluetooth" is by far preferable to your 4-step process.
- snickerdoodle12 1y ago
  To be fair, step 4 isn't a real step, step 1 is just buying the "hub" or "border router" or whatever, and step 2 & 3 are the same for Zigbee and Matter, the button is just somewhere else. A typical consumer has bought a zigbee hub (like they need to buy a thread border router), then use their phone to press a button in the app and then they press a button on the device. Still dead simple and doesn't require flaky bluetooth from their phone, which in 2025 most androids still suffer from.

amanda99 1y ago

Look, I agree with you and as someone with Home Assistant, I much prefer Zigbee. But if you imagine a typical consumer, not a tech nerd, I think "smartphone and bluetooth" is by far preferable to your 4-step process.

snickerdoodle12 1y ago
To be fair, step 4 isn't a real step, step 1 is just buying the "hub" or "border router" or whatever, and step 2 & 3 are the same for Zigbee and Matter, the button is just somewhere else. A typical consumer has bought a zigbee hub (like they need to buy a thread border router), then use their phone to press a button in the app and then they press a button on the device. Still dead simple and doesn't require flaky bluetooth from their phone, which in 2025 most androids still suffer from.