A Big Boost for Matter: IKEA Announces Plans to Launch over 20 New Matter Smart Home Products

In July 2025, IKEA announced its plans to launch more than 20 new smart home products, that are based on the Matter-over-Thread standard, from January 2026. This announcement followed earlier technological developments by the company in 2024, when its DIRIGERA smart home hub was updated to support Matter.

With these new Matter-enabled products, IKEA’s new smart lights, sensors, and other devices will be able to connect directly to other Matter controllers, such as Amazon Echo, Google Nest, and Apple HomePod, without the need for a dedicated IKEA DIRIGERA smart home hub. This announcement by IKEA is highly positive with the increased ease of integration with other smart home ecosystems likely to drive future sales potential of the company’s smart home products. Other vendors that have also recently launched their own Matter-compatible products include Bosch, Nanoleaf, Meross, etc.

Matter is a universal smart home automation standard that was introduced to enable simpler and unified communication across devices from different vendors. The standard is governed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) and backed by major smart home device vendors, including Amazon, Apple, Huawei, Google, Samsung, Tuya, and many others. From the chipset perspective, most of the major Integrated Circuit (IC) manufacturers (e.g., Qualcomm, NXP Semiconductors, Silicon Labs, MediaTek, Espressif, Nordic Semiconductor, etc.) also support the Matter standard, and new chipsets, such as the MT7903, MG26 and SYN4390/SYN4384, continue to be launched.

In November 2024, the CSA released specifications for Matter 1.4, which 1) includes support for Home Routers and Access Points (HRAP); 2) introduces Enhanced Multi-Admin features; 3) expands energy management capabilities beyond large appliances and Electric Vehicle (EV) supply equipment to new device types (e.g., solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, and water heaters); and 4) various others enhancements for switches, sensors, and buttons. Since then, Matter 1.4.1 and 1.4.2 specifications have also been released, which bring about overall improvements to 1) the setup process; 2) security; 3) scene support; 4) device management and more. From the devices perspective, strong momentum is also being observed in this space, with the CSA reporting that there are more than 560 certified Matter products.

However, several major challenges with Matter implementation remain:

• The inconsistency in how different major ecosystem players, such as Amazon, Apple, Google, are implementing Matter introduce confusion in the consumer market. For example, Google’s official developer website indicates that only Matter 1.0 devices are currently supported. Also, while the Matter 1.2 specification was released in October 2023, Apple only included Matter support for robotic vacuums in March 2025.
• Matter may not support advanced and/or manufacturer-specific features of the various equipment vendors, thereby reducing the appeal of adopting the standard.
• There is still a limited number of Matter devices, relative to the total number of smart home devices. Some popular smart home device types, such as smart cameras and video doorbells, are still not supported via Matter.

Despite the challenges raised above, the Matter standard is still a key technology that promises interoperability and overall smarter home implementations. From the individual smart home vendor perspective, it is an opportunity to expand their market reach outside their own ecosystem.

Below, ABI Research identifies some recommendations that smart home vendors could undertake to strengthen their value proposition to customers:

• Adopting a Hybrid Approach: Rather than abandoning the Matter standard completely, vendors could consider a hybrid approach in which their devices can be controlled both through Matter (for basic functions) and via the vendor-specific platform (for advanced features). This can serve as a good middle ground for the time being, while more features are being added to the Matter standard.
• Stronger Collaborations with Key Ecosystems: Smart home vendors will need to work closely with key ecosystem players (e.g., Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung, Xiaomi, etc.) to ensure seamless integration and compatibility. Large ecosystem players, such as Amazon, have put in place various programs (e.g., Works with Alexa) to provide consumers with increased confidence about how the product can be easily integrated into smart home ecosystems. Smart home equipment vendors should leverage such programs to increase the appeal of their products.
• Invest in New Technologies: While Thread is still a relatively new communications protocol, smart home vendors should consider how they can add Thread-based devices to their product portfolios. With Apple iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and newer devices integrating a Thread Radio (iOS 18 is also required), it is now possible to implement smart home automations without the need for a home hub. With more smartphones expected to double up as home hubs in the future, integrating Thread communication protocols into their smart home devices can be a potential growth strategy for equipment manufacturers.
• Expansion of Smart Home Device Portfolio: To increase the overall size of the market, equipment vendors will need to introduce new smart home applications beyond the more common use cases today. For example, smart utility metering, water heaters, and irrigation systems, are some possible considerations. However, to ensure that these new applications do bring value and address consumer pain points, proper and comprehensive validation studies will need to be conducted prior to market launch.