So Eve has released Matter support for some of their devices to early adopters that also have upgraded to iOS 16.2
Clearly it is not ready. From a friend that is a hardware/software guru who just upgraded one of his Eve smartplugs to the Matter firmware:
"If you don’t want to lose any Eve Energy features then I wouldn’t advise you to upgrade to Matter. It’s enough that I’ve already done it.
The fact that Matter does not support measuring power consumption is not new, but after updating to Matter, even in the Eve app, all functions have disappeared, including on device timers, power consumption, historical data.
Even device identification doesn’t work, but luckily there is still ON/OFF.
From a really decent smart plug, Matter made the simplest plugin like a cheap Google or Amazon plug for a premium price. It’s called innovation.
For my part, I certainly have no intention of updating any more of Eve devices to Matter for the foreseeable future.
Also, forget about any custom characteristics for use in 3rd party apps. There are none other than a firmware update. Everything is based only on Matter.
IMHO, For HomeKit users, in the short term, there is no benefit to upgrading existing HomeKit devices that are already certified and running HomeKit, to use Matter/Thread underneath versus their current working setup.
Remember, Thread radios work with HomeKit WITHOUT Matter. That’s how all the newer Eve devices work now (Thread without Matter instead of BLE).
The primary benefits of Matter, using until now non-HomeKit devices with HomeKit, or using HomeKit devices with non-HomeKit platforms (Amazon, Google, Smarthings, etc.) will be helpful in the future but current software to do that is is either not yet released or very buggy.
Also, at the time Matter was conceived (over three years ago), the choice of official HomeKit certified devices was very limited. But in the last few years, we have gotten low-priced, quality HomeKit products from the tidal wave of offshore manufacturers such as Aqara, Eufy, Meross and others.
So again, the “need” for Matter for existing HomeKit/Apple users is far less important right now than it seemed a few years ago when we had a lot more “affordable device envy” of the non-HomeKit devices selling for other eco-systems.
Please apply IMHO to all of the above. Just my feeling of how things stand at this time, based on reality of what is released and the bare minimal functionality supported.
Thank you for this topic, it reminds me of the old proverb:
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I am not sure that Matter is to blame. I would even say that it absolutely is about time that Matter enters the stage to really get Smart Home stuff working for everybody. But I guess, it may the other way round: there are a lot of ecosystems, apps and devices that are not ready for Matter yet (at least not without caveats or to their full extent).
I will wait some time until I really dig into Matter. Right now, I am fine with the devices I own and how they are working in their environment. It will be interesting to see how everything works and looks a few months from now.
Matter is now available in Home Assistant (the 2022.12 release onwards). In their integration page it is clearly listed a being beta only. From a couple of reviews about this release from YouTube creators who make content on the subject, they are very clear that the Matter support is mainly for developers to test their equipment at the moment. They are not expecting everything to move to Matter straight away. Most things in Home Assistant will be staying on Zigbee, Z Wave or WiFi, certainly in the short term.
I have the latest Apple TV 4K, supposed to support thread and Matter. I have a few Eve Energy thread devices (door / windows sensors, motion detector and energy monitors that are thread enabled). However, I do not see thread in the Apple Home app on iPhone. Any suggestion?
Thread in HomeKit is like most things in Apple - completely opaque.
Without devolving into a rant, you can’t see anything about Thread, let alone diagnose or debug it, with Apple provided apps or utilities.
If using Eve Thread devices, you can see the status and details of the Thread network using the Eve app.
In the Eve app, click on the settings gear in the lower right corner. Then look for the “Thread network” section.
You will need to have an Eve Thread device that is AC powered so it can act as a Thread router node (not the same thing as a Thread border router which is usually your AppleTV or HomePod Mini).
For initial use, I suggest insuring all the required devices (Thread Border Router, Thread router node, and Thread end device) are all near each other in the same room.
Once you have it working, you can then experiment with range and reach moving them further away and closer to where you actually want to be used.
