Having a smart home without compatibility barriers is becoming more and more a reality, thanks to the Matter protocol supported by Amazon, Google, Apple and also Home Assistant.
So today we are going to find out how to use Matter smart devices with Home Assistant and also with Amazon Alexa additionally.
Tutorial on using Matter with Home Assistant
To begin with, when choosing smart devices that use the Matter standard, you should be very careful.
They usually use Wi-Fi or Thread technology.
You can easily identify it on the packaging of the device, indicating Matter and Wi-Fi.
O indicating Matter and Thread.
Prerequisites for using Matter with Home Assistant
Let’s see how to integrate 2 types of Matter devices with Home Assistant.
A Matter Wi-Fi smart plug from NEO.
For this plug, we only need our Home Assistant Green home automation hub.
A door/window sensor Matter by Thread from Aqara.
For this sensor, which communicates with Thread technology that can be compared in many respects to Zigbee technology, in addition to our Home Assistant Green home automation hub, we need a “Thread Border Router”.
And, for this, we will use our Home Assistant ZBT-1 dongle.
In my example, I am going to consider that I am starting a fresh installation of Matter devices with Home Assistant, so you can follow these steps if this is also the case for you.
To make sure everything is going to work, the first thing to do is to update Home Assistant Core and Home Assistant OS to enjoy the latest features and optimisations of Matter. And before doing so, I recommend you always create a backup copy in case you have any kind of usage failure in your installation.
We must go to “Settings” and we can see available updates.
So we are going to update the Core.
And we will also update the OS.
You must also have iOS version 16 or higher on your phone if you have an iPhone or Android version 8.1 or higher if you have an Android phone.
And you must have the latest version of the Home Assistant app on your phone.
In order to connect Matter devices with Home Assistant, it is necessary to activate Bluetooth on your phone, as these devices often use this technology when pairing.
And once linked, they will communicate via Wi-Fi or Thread.
We must also be connected to the same Wi-Fi network on our phone to successfully pair Matter devices with Home Assistant.
Now that we have everything updated and ready to set up Matter devices with Home Assistant, let’s add our smart devices.
How to set up Matter over Wi-Fi
We are going to configure a Matter WIFI socket.
We are going to access the interface of our Home Assistant Green home automation hub and go to “Settings”.
Now go to “Devices and services”.
“Add integration”.
And we search for “Matter”.
Now, leave the checkbox “Use the official Matter Server supervisor add-on” ticked and click “Submit”.
And we must click on “Finish”.
Now, from your phone, go to the Home Assistant application and go to “Settings”.
Go to “Devices and services”.
“Add integration”.
“Add Matter device”.
And we select the option “No. It’s new” if we don’t use our Matter device in another controller.
Now, let’s scan the QR code on our Matter smart plug.
This QR code is usually found on the device.
Also in the instruction manual or a sheet that comes in the packaging.
At this point, we must have our Matter device in partnership mode, so in the case of my plug, I must have it plugged into the mains and, if necessary, hit its physical button for a few seconds to put it into partnership mode.
Done, after a few seconds, I have my Matter Wi-Fi device available in Home Assistant.
So now I can control it from my phone, anywhere in the world.
How to configure Matter by Thread
To use a Matter device with Thread technology, as I mentioned, we will need a Thread Border Router that we have to use with Home Assistant.
In my example, I will use the Home Assistant dongle ZBT-1, as it is the official dongle of the company Nabu Casa, creator of the Home Assistant project, so I will surely enjoy the best compatibilities over time.
I am going to insert my ZBT-1 dongle into the USB port of my Home Assistant Green home automation hub.
Now, in the Home Assistant interface, go to “Settings”.
And “Devices and services”.
We can see the ZBT-1 dongle, so we click on “Add”.
And in the popup that appears, click on “Thread”.
This will have the effect of installing OpenThread Border Router. We can hit “Submit”.
And now, we can click on “Finish”.
Now, under “Settings” and “Devices and services”, we have the option “Thread” and we can click on “Add”.
Now, we must click on “Send”.
And “Finish”.
From our phone, we go to the Home Assistant application and go to “Settings”.
We must go to “Devices and services”.
We must click on “Thread”.
And click on “Configure”.
Now, click on “Send credentials to Phone”. This will allow you to share identification information with your phone.
We can now add Matter devices on Thread.
Go to “Settings”.
Go to “Devices and services”.
“Add integration”.
“Add Matter device”.
We select the option “No. It’s new” if we do not use our Matter device in another controller.
And, this time, we scan the QR code of our Aqara sensor found in the instruction manual.
Done, it now appears in the Home Assistant interface.
So we will be able to know the status of our door or window, open or closed, from anywhere in the world on our phone.
How to use Matter devices with other platforms (Multi-Fabric)
Once we have our Matter smart devices linked to Home Assistant, the interest of Matter is to be able to unify our smart home with other ecosystems without complications thanks to the Multi-Fabric function.
So, in my example, we will enjoy the Multi-Fabric function with Amazon Alexa voice assistants.
In order to link Matter devices with other compatible ecosystems, from the Home Assistant interface, go to “Settings”.
“Devices and services”.
And under “Matter” we click on “Devices”.
We access a device.
Click on the “Share device” option.
Click again on “Share device”.
And we have a QR code and a code with numbers.
So we will be able to access it in the Amazon Alexa app. We click on “More” and “Add Device”.
We click on “Other”.
Select “Matter”.
And now we can try scanning the QR code.
Or enter the code with numbers that appears in Home Assistant.
That’s it, we have our Matter device available and controllable on Amazon Alexa.
And we follow the same process with our second Matter device.
As you can see, whether it is a Matter Wi-Fi or Matter Thread device, it makes no difference to link them to other platforms as we already have everything configured in Home Assistant and have our Thread Border Router in Home Assistant with our ZBT-1 dongle.
So now I have control of my smart devices in Home Assistant.
And also in Amazon Alexa, and could continue to link these Matter devices with other compatible ecosystems and thus definitely have a unified smart home experience.
So Matter is likely to become an increasingly important player in the smart home market.