Aqara had promised the arrival of Matter within its range for the month of December, but three days before the new year, it is clear that it failed. The Chinese manufacturer specializing in home automation has confirmed this at the specialized site HomeKit Authority : Matter release is late. If all goes well, the update should be released in January, the time to finalize this new version and improve the user experience, according to Aqara.
Its M2 hub will be the first to switch to Matter with a firmware update. This new version is currently in test with a few users, which is probably enough to verify that everything is working correctly and to correct the latest bugs. When the update is available, around forty Aqara accessories will also pass into the Matter camp and can thus be used in this context.
For the moment, only the M2 hub will be Matter compatible and it will be essential to use Aqara accessories in this new world. The latter being only equipped with ZigBee, it is necessary to make the link between this protocol specialized in the communication of home automation devices and the local network at home. The M2 offers two options in this regard, with a Wi-Fi chip as well as an Ethernet socket.
Other hubs could be added in the following months to the list, but an Aqara hub should in any case remain necessary until further notice. Yes, Matter is complicated and in this case, ZigBee communication between the accessories and the connection bridge remains the responsibility of the manufacturer.
Home automation: Matter barely launched and already it’s complicated