Despite being designed to 'connect and just work', it turns out IKEA's new smart home sensors actually have some specific, confusing hub requirements

Recently, IKEA brought out what looked like the perfect range of smart home sensors. I had a sneak peak of the range at CES, and got the low-down from an IKEA representative, who was keen to emphasize how simple, accessible, and affordable the new additions were designed to be.

When I got them home, things looked promising. IKEA had emphasized that the range was designed to 'work out of the box', offering basic functionality without the need to download the app first, to remove that barrier to entry. That held true for my Timmerflotte temperature sensor — I was able to pop in some batteries, flick a hidden toggle switch from Fahrenheit to Centigrade, and immediately see the temperature and humidity displayed on-screen.

I then decided to dig deeper into the extra functionality, and this is where I started to run into problems. I downloaded the IKEA Home Smart app, tried to connect my Timmerflotte, and it couldn't find it. After repeated efforts, I remained unsuccessful.

One of my teammates suggested I might need an IKEA Dirigera home hub, so I scoured the product page for confirmation. It read: "This smart product uses the universal standard Matter, making it easy to install, operate and add to DIRIGERA hub and to other well-known systems."

So far, so unclear. I got in touch with my contact at IKEA to try and get a firmer answer. Finally, I got the following response from the Tech team:

"The issue is likely that you're missing a Thread Border Router. All new IKEA sensors (including TIMMERFLOTTE and BILRESA) use Matter over Thread, which requires a Thread Border Router to connect. Without one active on the network, setup won’t complete. DIRIGERA includes a Thread Border Router, and other brands’ hubs may also work if they support Matter over Thread. From IKEA, we don’t maintain an official compatibility list of who those are, but recommend using DIRIGERA."

IKEA has since updated its product listing page to say, "This product uses Matter over Thread, which means that you need a Thread Border Router to control it through your phone, for example our DIRIGERA hub."

Disappointing developments

I'm pleased that at least now IKEA has made the requirements clearer on its product pages, but overall the situation is still disappointing for a couple of reasons. The first is that a hub is required at all, and that IKEA didn't feel the need to make that really clear on the product pages.

One of the big draws of these sensors is that they're cheap, with most of the range coming in under $10/£10. That budget-friendly price tag suddenly becomes a little less affordable when you factor in a Dirigera hub, which costs a not-insignificant $109 / £60. At that price, you need to consider if you want to buy into the ecosystem as a whole — it's not going to be worth it if it's just powering a couple of cheap temperature sensors.

The second is that IKEA isn't clear on which alternative smart home hubs the sensors will work with, and figuring it out for yourself is complicated. The brand is pushing the fact that because these gadgets are now Matter-compatible, they should integrate smoothly into any smart home ecosystem, but the reality seems more complicated.

I've had a message from a customer who told me he'd managed to connect his Timmerflotte via another Matter-compatible hub, but that it wasn't straightforward and took several attempts. IKEA's own FAQ on the subject isn't wholly helpful, either:

I already have a smart home system from another brand, can I use smart products from IKEA in that one?
With the DIRIGERA hub, the IKEA Home smart app can guide you in connecting to Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit.

Particularly ironic is a comment I had from David Granath, Range Manager for Lighting and Home Electronics at IKEA, in the context of adding Matter compatibility to the new range. "It removes one of the biggest barriers to getting started with a smart home," he told me. "People don’t want to research standards or ecosystems, or worry about which products work with what hub. They want things to connect and just work."

Have you managed to connect one of the new sensors to an alternative smart home hub? Drop a note in the comments section, and I'll update this article with new info as I get it.

Alternatively, if you do want to buy into the IKEA smart home ecosystem, you'll find the best prices for the Dirigera smart hub below.

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