Relatively new to the world of Homey, so bear with me for a second.
I have learned so far that Homey can’t do any OTA firmware upgrades. For Matter I can use other apps or Apple Home to upgrade. But how about Zigbee. Can I just buy a Zigbee bridge and trigger upgrades via an app or something? What are your recommendations?
My Zigbee stuff is from Sonoff, Third Reality and Ikea (Philips Hue Pro hub takes care of the Hue upgrades
Thanks
For Sonoff, you can use eWeLink CUBE or a Sonoff bridge. For ThirdReality, you need the “Smart Hub Gen2 (Plus)” and for IKEA you need DIRIGERA. There’s no way to update devices from Homey
You can link the device to the manufacturer’s hub and connect it back to Homey afterwards. You can also keep them linked to the manufactuerer’s bridge. For Sonoff, you can connect some devices via the eWeLink Homey app (when connected to the bridge). For ThirdReality, you can integrate via virtual devices and Google Home (limited to smart plugs and lights). I don’t have the IKEA hub, so I don’t know if you can integrate it via Homey.
Oh crap, so the Homey is not the last bridge I will ever need…
Another 100 euro’s to spend on bridges? The Sonoff dongles won’t work (no idea where to plug them in btw)
You could use
The software would need to run on a device other than Homey, and you would need a zigbee dongle. Once you have this setup, OTA updates can be performed using zigbee2mqtt.
You can then use the zigbee2mqtt app on homey, to expose all devices from zigbee2mqtt to Homey.
For Sonoff you can use eWeLink CUBE. You need a Raspberry Pi and the eWeLink CUBE software
I wouldn’t recommend that. As far as I can see, it uses an unofficial method of updating devices by using FW files uploaded by the community, which is AFAIK unverified. You could risk bricking your devices and voiding your device’s warranty.
If the update isn’t urgent, I would wait before buying any more hubs.
Athom is in the process of introducing this to Homey, starting with thread/matter and then the rest of the wireless protocols. 
Has Athom given a timeline?
OTA updates are part of the Zigbee protocol, so as long as Z2M implements the protocol properly (and AFAIK it does, I certainly never had issues when performing OTA updates from it) I don’t think there’s a big risk.
FWIW, if Homey will ever support Zigbee OTA updates (and my guess is that it won’t), they will, by definition, also be unofficial.
At 37:06
Ok. I guess I have to wait a bit more. Thanks
The update files need to come from somewhere. I’m sure the companies don’t willingly provide their firmware files, so the files are unverified/unofficial. And since you’re not updating the way you’re supposed to (which is via the manufacturer’s hub), AFAIK that will also void your warranty.
The project to support OTA updates is currently being worked on
Athom’s timeline is usually equal to Soon™
Not necessarily. In fact, INNR support included the below Dutch statement in their answer after I opened a case with them because I was not able to update the firmware of their SP240 plugs through their own hub.
Op het moment kunnen INNR stekkers alleen via Home Assistant geüpdate worden, systemen zoals Hubitat en Zigbee2MQTT kunnen ook de INNR stekkers updaten.
They were basically telling me to update the firmware using another system, Zigbee2MQTT being one of them.
Why would they not allow updating via their own bridge? How can anyone without technical skills update their devices then?
I still prefer to use manufacturer’s own bridges, because I think it’s safer to use what the manufacturer recommends (support, warranty, risk of bricking devices, etc.). Of course, if the manufacturer recommends zigbee2mqtt, then you should upgrade the devices there.
I currently have a Hue bridge, Homey, ThirdReality bridge and eWeLink CUBE. It doesn’t affect other ZigBee networks at all, you just need to pick the right ZigBee channel (similar to WiFi)
Funny enough, I’ve asked about 30 partners and all are willing to provide the OTA files. This was a different story some time back however
They claimed it was due to an issue in their app at the time, and they were not able to provide an ETA for a solution.
Actually, their own hub did not have the option to update Zigbee devices, at least the SP240 plug I had several of. They were planning to add such functionality to their own hub, but apparently it was not really a priority.
I waited for a year and was in frequent contact with their support desk. During that period they also referred me to Home Assistant and Zigbee2MQTT. In the end, I bought a seperate Zigbee stick and updated all my plugs via Zigbee2MQTT, as the firmware they came with had several issues.
Then I also learned that:
Maybe this is the odd one out, but INNR is an example of brand that does share their firmware and promotes using other platforms for performing updates.
