Indigo Users' Matter Thread

[FlyingDiver]

Here's some interesting reading (and watching) on Matter.

https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2024 ... ream-blog/

[norcoscia]

Great - thanks for posting - my tiny green HA box is supposed to be here today — the more HA stuff I read the better - once I saw your INDIGO plug-in, HA got more interesting to me, especially with the Thread/Matter work they are implementing.

[thumpinc]

Im bumping this. Matter is going to be key to smarthome as far as I can tell. All sorts of devices are flooding the market, they are low cost and work locally without the need for cloud access.

Can we get any idea of a timeline to add Matter to Indigo from the Devs? Seems really important in terms of figuring out a go-forward plan on replacing Insteon devices with Matter devices for me.at least.

[jay (support)]

We're watching its progress, but nothing to announce.

At this time , we still believe that Z-Wave is generally the best replacement alternative for Insteon given its market position/penetration.

[7rdr7]

Although I somewhat agree with Jay on the z-wave comment. I think that there may be an opportunity to use Matter as a northbound interface to integrate with all device manufacturers (Apple/Google/Amazon, etc). Matter could provide a universal northbound interface that would not be subject to the litigation exposure risked by backdoor solutions.

[jay (support)]

I'm not following. Northbound? Backdoor?

[7rdr7]

Southbound = Matter > devices (switches, sensors, lights, etc.)
Northbound = Matter > mobile app (Home app, Google app, Alexa app). Using Matter to emulate Indigo devices.
Backdoor = HomeKitLink Siri, HomeKit Bridge, etc. (open to reverse engineering intellectual property issues)
Universal Northbound = Matter interface to Google Home, Apple Home, and Alexa apps.

Apologies if I used these terms too loosely….

[dliccardo]

I have a house full of z wave devices and Apple devices and of course I use HomeKit Link Siri plugin (thank you FlyingDiver). If I want to start adding Matter over Thread devices to my setup, is there anyway to integrate this into Indigo at the moment?

[7rdr7]

HomeLinkSiri was/is created by GlennNz. It’s an excellent plugin!!!

[McJohn]

So, now that Matter devices are increasingly becoming available and a flood of Matter devices will be hitting the market in the near future, the question arises again:
Will Indigo support Matter directly, or will users have to continue working with plugins and various (external) bridges for the coming years?

For example:
https://www.amazon.com/SONOFF-MINIR4M-U ... r=8-5&th=1

[durosity]

So, now that Matter devices are increasingly becoming available and a flood of Matter devices will be hitting the market in the near future, the question arises again:
Will Indigo support Matter directly, or will users have to continue working with plugins and various (external) bridges for the coming years?

For example:
https://www.amazon.com/SONOFF-MINIR4M-U ... r=8-5&th=1

I do believe that matter is going to become the defacto standard. I think too many big players have a vested interest in making it so now, so I doubt it’ll fail. Plus from my (limited) point of view it does seem to have the kind of benefits we’ve wanted for a long time.

Of course.. I’m waiting for one major manufacturer to decide “Ya know what.. we need to change this for our own needs…”

[jay (support)]

Will Indigo support Matter directly, or will users have to continue working with plugins and various (external) bridges for the coming years?

Asked and answered just a few of posts above, posted a just couple of weeks ago.

[nathanw]

Have things gotten better? My at-a-distance view of Matter is that it could use a lot more maturity.
https://www.theverge.com/24009519/hue-b ... e-problems " My Philips Hue setup was one of the most reliable, interoperable systems in my smart home. Then I migrated to Matter, and now everything is broken."

[dliccardo]

opp, sorry for the misattribution GlennNz! Thank you for HomeKit Link Siri. (I also use lots of FlyingDiver's plugins). Thanks to you guys for providing critical features sets that I need in my setup!

[dliccardo]

Now Jay. I know you guys work hard on Indigo and you are a small team and I get that adding Matter would be a big undertaking. But, let me say this. Please consider prioritizing skating to where the puck is going to make your platform desirable and future proof.

Is the future Matter? Of course we can't be sure yet. I only own one matter device. But, all of the anecdotal information I can find certainly points that way. All the big players Apple/Google/Amazon have support now. Many new cool devices seem to be hitting the market. If I were in charge of Indigo right now, I would probably be adjusting my priorities right now to make this the single biggest tent pole of 2024. The risk/reward has crossed that threshold IMHO.

I have a house full of z-wave and it has been the best of a set of bad options for home automation over the last decade. It leaves a lot to be desired. I have z-wave devices that fail and have to be replaced. I have z-wave devices that sometimes loose their minds and need to be repaired at close range which is literally an hour project in my setup. I have z-wave devices that do not relay messages from others. I have some that don't report battery status correctly. I have multi button devices that send duplicate messages (or maybe its an Indigo bug, but I had to write a button debounce script to use them) I have z wave devices that don't report status reliably. I sometimes have massive delays in my z-wave network for unknown reasons. In summary, I have spent an insane number of hours "maintaining" my z-wave system over the years. I don't think the bar is very high with z-wave and its vulnerable to disruption right now.

I'm probably at the point where as each z-wave device fails or otherwise misbehaves, I'll be trying to find a matter device to replace it. So, for customers like me, if I don't have indigo to integrate to, then I will have to start looking elsewhere. You can't wait until Matter is "well adopted" if you want to capture folks when they start making the transition. I've gotten close to spinning up Home Assistant in the past, which now has Matter support released in Beta and I hope that I don't get pushed that way because of lagging support from Indigo.