I have just bought the new Google TV Streamer. It also works as a Thread border router with Matter. I have connected it to my Homey Pro 2019 as a Chromecast device. But will it also function for connecting Thread/Matter devices to Homey?
AFAIK the older Homey Pro’s don’t support Matter, so no.
But that’s no issue, does it?
The Google TV Streamer connects to the devices using Tread and Matter and adds them to Google Home. Homey connects to Google Home using WIFI and should be able to interact with the devices.
It’s the same way Homey can interact with Hue devices that are connected using Zigbee to the Philips Hue Bridge instead of directly to Homey. Every Thread Border Router is nothing more than a bridge between Thread en WIFI.
The only thing that’s needed is a Homey app that supports the extra functionality of the Google TV Streamer instead of only seeing it as a Chromecast device.
The problem is that Google Home doesn’t have an API to interface with devices connected to their platform.
They did recently announce their Home APIs but that will only be available for iOS and Android devices.
So for now; no that won’t be possible unfortunately.
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Before adopting the Homey Pro, I purchased a Google Nest Hub. This led me to buy other Google products to ensure compatibility. However, a few months later, I realized this was likely my biggest mistake in setting up a smart home.
Years later, I believe Google Home is the worst smart home platform from a major tech company. Its oversimplified and unattractive UI fails to showcase device capabilities, lacks graphs for data over time (like temperature and humidity and many more), and suffers from high latency with many integrated services. Additionally, it pushes users towards subscriptions (e.g., Nest cameras lacking ONVIF/RTSP support) and raises privacy concerns, which are among my biggest disappointments with Google Home.
If people continue to buy their smart home products, I’m sure Google will eventually charge a monthly fee, as they often start by “offering” something for free (while selling your data) and then add charges later.
After using the Homey Pro 2023 for about 10 months, I would never go back. Although I still use Google Home among other platforms because I like it, Homey is now my top choice.
Google’s power lies in its brand recognition and substantial marketing budget to add their logo on smart home products, which traps consumers into buying their products.
This was my rant about Google Home, but I hope it helps others see its weaknesses and not just rely on its brand presence in the smart home market.
Still there is build in functionality in Homey Pro (since the beginning) to connect Homey to Google Home. All my Homey connected devices show up in Google Home and I can cast text to Google using flows to make Google Assistant alert me for events. Also I can use Google Home routines and give spoken commands to Google Assistant to start flows on Homey. I’ve got Android phones for years, use Android Auto and Android TV. Most of the time everything works flawless and I would not want to miss out on this functionality. At the moment I have a lot of devices with different protocols; Zigbee, RTS / 433 MHz , Wifi. I don’t think I will ever replace everything with Thread/Matter. That would be far to costly, but I would like to experiment with it. What’s the difference of using a Thread border router from Google, Ikea or any other brand? Is there no requirement for the Thread and Matter protocols that manufacturers must implement API’s for access to the connected devices? If not, then what’s the point of using these protocols?
A Thread border router helps connect a Matter over Thread device to a Matter network (known as a Matter Fabric). After that, you’ll still need to transfer the device to another Matter network, such as a Homey Pro (early 2023), so that Homey can also control the device.
Since Homey Pro (2019) doesn’t support Matter at all and doesn’t have its own Matter Fabric, the Thread border router would need an API that Homey can use to interact with.
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I’m playing the devil here for a moment. 
So, with Thread/Matter you always need at least one main network on the Homey that has a connection to all the devices? And that limits me to the maximum number of devices the main network can handle.
Now I’m using Zigbee. I have over 50 devices of which some are connected to my Homey Zigbee network and others to the Zigbee network of my Philips Hue bridge. This way I can connect more devices than a single network can handle but my Homey can still see and control all the devices in both networks. So which is the better protocol?
And when manufacturers who implement the Thread & Matter protocols still protect their own ecosystem what possible reason could I have to replace all my devices and switch to these new protocols?
This has nothing to do with protocol. The reason Homey can interact with the Zigbee devices managed by the Hue hub is because it provides an API* for Homey to interact with it. Your Google device lacks such an API.
However, it does support Matter to (at least) provide access to the Thread devices it manages, but your Homey doesn’t support that protocol.
*: that API is completely proprietary, it only works with Hue hubs, not with Zigbee hubs from other brands. Such other hubs may also provide their own (completely proprietary) API, which requires an entirely different Homey app to interact with. That’s partly why Matter exists: it’s a common specification that hubs can implement (the Hue hub also supports it) so they can interact with each other in a standardised way.
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Zigbee hubs or platforms can’t communicate directly with each other over Zigbee. In your case, both Homey and Hue have their own Zigbee networks and communicate over the internet, either locally or through the cloud, using an API.
Matter works differently. A Matter hub has its own Matter Fabric but can also communicate with another hub’s Matter Fabric via Matter Multi-Admin.
In your scenario, Google has its own Matter Fabric and could theoretically share it with other Matter hubs through Multi-Admin. However, Homey Pro (2019) doesn’t support Matter, so it can’t access Google’s Matter Fabric. This doesn’t mean Homey can never access those devices—Google could create an API that Homey Pro (2019) could use, but that API doesn’t exist at this time.
It’s like a person that wants to talk to another person in a language that they don’t understand, so they would need some kind of translator.
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So if I understand correctly…
Matter is a standardized replacement for API’s. Every device that talks Matter can connect to all others and they form one big Matter network subdivided in smaller sections called Fabrics. Each border router controls a Fabric and there is no limit for the number of Matter devices. Thread is a hardware protocol like Zigbee and a Thread border router connects Thread to WIFI. And there are also Matter devices that use WIFI instead of Thread. When I buy a new Homey I can connect Matter devices over WIFI or Thread directly to my Homey or connect them to my Google TV Streamer and then also control them from the Homey and Google Home?
You’re almost there!
While Matter can replace APIs in some cases, having Matter support doesn’t mean a device can’t also have an API. Both can coexist.
A Thread Border Router can act as a Matter controller (which manages the Matter Fabric), but that’s not always the case. Sometimes, a Thread Border Router is simply part of another Matter controller’s Matter Fabric.
Matter can indeed operate over various wireless and wired technologies. Thread is typically used for low-power devices, while Wi-Fi or LAN is preferred for devices connected to mains power.
And yes, that is correct. You can share Matter devices between Matter Controllers using Matter Multi-Admin.
Thank you all for your time and explanations. I thought Thread and Matter should make everything easier for customers, but it seems that when I buy any device with Thread/Matter I must check the specifications closely to be sure it supports the functionality I’m looking for.
I would add two more things to keep in mind when you see a device certified to work with Matter.
- It helps while people slowly make the transition to Matter with their existing devices but many brands require their own Hub to make their devices work with Matter. Exemple: SwitchBot Bot requires SwitchBot hub to work with Matter. Some brands, explain it well, others not really. So be careful when you see the logo as it sometimes comes with *terms and conditions
- Some brands advertise you need their Hub to make their device work with Matter even when this is not required because it’s a completely new device that already support Matter “natively”. They just try to get you a bit more into their own ecosystem by making you buy a Hub that was not required.
One of my main criteria when buying a device is native Matter support even if I have to wait a few more months for a particular device.
Overall, I would say Matter is already making Smart Home much more interoperable and that’s already a great thing. Not everything is perfect, and it’s still work in progress but at least when you buy these Matter devices, there is a very high chance, you will be able to use them for a very long time with any brands.
I think this is how it works:
- Device uses Matter-over-Thread: supported by Homey Pro 2023’s Matter implementation
- Device uses Matter-over-WiFi: supported by Homey Pro 2023’s Matter implementation
- Device uses HomeKit-over-Thread: not supported by Homey
- Hub uses Matter: supported by Homey Pro 2023’s Matter implementation
(all “in theory”, because some device types aren’t supported by Homey yet)
So take for example the SwitchBot Bot: it uses BLE, which isn’t listed above, so it’s not supported by Homey’s Matter implementation. The SwitchBot Hub uses Matter, so it is supported by Homey’s Matter implementation.
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