A confession: we don't sell temperature sensors. No humidity sensors, no motion sensors either. And honestly? We don't plan to. You can snap up quality Matter over Thread sensors at IKEA for less than the cost of a nice lunch — great quality, great price, and they do exactly what they say. What IKEA doesn't sell is Australian-certified wall switches and power points. Funny, that. It's almost like we were meant to be friends.
In the old days, that friendship was impossible. Every brand built its own walled garden — its own hub, its own app, its own rules — and heaven help you if you bought a sensor from one and a switch from another. The Zigbee era was full of gear that technically spoke the same radio language but still refused to sit at the same table.
Matter is the opposite. Matter is the social butterfly of the smart home — it plays well with almost everyone. An IKEA sensor, an Aqara button and an iSwitch light switch can all live in the same app, on the same dashboard, in the same automations, and none of them care who made the others.
And because Matter supports multi-admin, you don't even have to choose an app. Add our switches to Apple Home for the family to use, and to Home Assistant for the serious tinkering — the same switch, in both at once.
Start simple. A light that turns on when the sun goes down. A lamp that switches off at midnight whether anyone remembered or not. Every app from Apple Home to Google Home does this out of the box, no extra gear required.
Then, when you're ready, get clever. Here's a favourite: put an IKEA humidity sensor in the bathroom and let Home Assistant watch the room. Steamy shower pushes the humidity up — Home Assistant notices and flicks the exhaust fan on through one of our wall switches. Humidity drifts back down, the fan turns itself off. Nobody touched anything, the mirror never fogged, and the mould never got a look-in. That's a sensor from one company, brains from an open-source project, and a switch from us — playing like they grew up together.
That's the whole promise of Matter, really. Buy the best gadget for each job, from whoever makes it best, and let them get along. We'll keep making the switches. IKEA can keep making the sensors. Your house gets the best of everyone.