AFAIK your loyalty cards are kept, payment cards need to be set up again using your bank’s app when you reset your phone to factory default.
A family member of mine recently upgraded to a new phone and her loyalty cards were still in the Wallet (probably those sync to your Google account), the payment card was gone though, she had to set that up again.
We aren’t really in charge of how Android works ya know, that’s more of a Google thing.
It is a pain in the *ss to change preferred Thread Networks on Android but I do know Google is working on making this simpler.
We unfortunately can’t wipe that information from your phone. Home Assistant for example also requires you to wipe your Google Play data.
What I do not understand is Athom’s passivity on this issue. The problem must surely be known internally by now; otherwise, I would seriously question the technical competence behind Homey.
Athom would only need to adapt Homey’s firmware and SHS to support network-connected radio adapters such as the SMLIGHT SLZB-06Mg26. No physical connection to the hub would be required. The adapter could be placed anywhere on the Ethernet network, providing a powerful and optimally positioned radio for Thread and/or Zigbee, while the weak internal radio could simply be disabled.
The hardware already exists, the concept is proven, and there are relatively straightforward ways to solve the problem. Yet the people behind Homey seem to prefer waiting until more and more frustrated customers have moved to other platforms.
Well, while this is obviously a big problem for you and some other users, this may very well be a relatively small problem when considering everything that’s going on in the Homey and smarthome world.
I wouldn’t be surprised the use of SHS is still a relative small percentage of the complete userbase and only the real tech savvy users of SHS would wan’t to go the route of connecting a dedicated transceiver as there’s plenty of other methods of integrating Thread devices.
That combined with the continious developments in thread workings I can see they’re not trying to be the front runner in this area, which to me is a sensible long term business decision.
That said, seeing how Doekse participates in this topic (during his vacation, that’s why I don’t mention him) I think stating Athom is passive seems a bit of a false accusation to me.
Sorry, but leaving support tickets unanswered for months is passive.
What makes it worse is that Athom seems fundamentally unwilling or unable to question its own products and design decisions. Instead of seriously considering that the hardware, radio implementation or support strategy itself might be flawed, the cause is repeatedly searched for everywhere else.
Athom also appears to interpret discussions like this primarily as negative criticism rather than as constructive feedback from experienced users who are pointing out problems and suggesting possible solutions. Criticism is not necessarily an attack. It can be an opportunity to identify weaknesses and improve the product. Most of the people writing here would clearly prefer Athom to solve these problems rather than abandon Homey.
Failing to resolve persistent Thread radio problems and repeatedly suggesting that the charger, cable, network or some unspecified peculiarity in the user’s home must be responsible is also passive. If Athom is actively investigating but still has nothing more concrete to offer, then the alternative description would be “helpless,” which is hardly better.
The suggestion that there is no wider problem simply because only a handful of users are discussing it in this thread is not credible either. Look at larger smart-home communities and count how often people say that they have moved away from Homey or are preparing to do so.
Anyone who has ever managed customer support knows that only a small percentage of dissatisfied users will open a ticket or post publicly. Most simply give up, replace the product and move on. Serious companies understand that visible complaints usually represent only a fraction of the affected customer base. Not taking that small percentage seriously can therefore have consequences for a much larger number of users.
And even without user complaints, the hardware design deserves criticism. Other smart-home platforms have increasingly moved towards separate Zigbee and Thread radios or external coordinators because combining both technologies introduces compromises. They share the same crowded 2.4 GHz spectrum, radio coexistence becomes more complex, and the hardware has to manage two separate mesh protocols.
On top of that, newer radio chipsets and external coordinator designs offer better performance, flexibility and placement options. Continuing with the same integrated design, without support for external radios or antennas, was therefore a poor strategic decision.
Home Assistant provides a good example of how such a situation should be handled. With SkyConnect, later renamed Connect ZBT-1, Home Assistant also initially pursued the idea of running Zigbee and Thread on the same radio. However, after gaining practical experience with that approach, Nabu Casa had the courage to acknowledge that it was not the best solution.
Instead of defending the original decision indefinitely, they changed direction. Today, Home Assistant offers purpose-built external radio hardware with much larger and better-positioned antennas and recommends using separate radios for separate protocols.
That is what I expect from a technology company: the ability to question its own decisions, admit when an earlier concept did not work as intended, learn from it and develop a better solution. Continuing to defend an old design while repeatedly searching for the cause exclusively on the user’s side is the opposite of that.
Calling Athom passive is therefore not a false accusation. It is criticism based on unanswered support tickets, unresolved reliability problems, the repeated tendency to blame the user’s environment and the limitations of the hardware design. More importantly, it is constructive criticism from users who would prefer Athom to improve Homey rather than leave the platform.
SmartThings, which is by far the largest smart home app in the world (since it’s pre-installed on all Samsung phones and tablets), also uses Multi-PAN on the SmartThings hub. So I don’t understand why it would be a bad concept?
From what I’ve read, many SmartThings users have similar issues with Thread and Zigbee.
Just jumping in to say that I don’t see it that way at all. I’m also curious where you got that idea from?
We’re always open to feedback, and we’ve noted your request for support for external antennas. We continuously monitor feedback and requests like this. That’s one of the reasons I’m here.
Also, keep in mind that Self-Hosted Server isn’t even a year old at this stage. It’s a continuously evolving platform, and we’ll keep improving and expanding it over time.
I find it odd that hes in a position to have to respond on his vacation. Why isn’t someone else from the team (who has a knowledge of these issues/feedback) responding.
I appreciate his time and honesty, but as someone who works in a high pressure events company, it is not healthy to continue being the public speaking face on all of this stuff, at the weekend and during annual leave. It will catch up with you.
I don’t have to, I like to. Can’t my job also be my hobby? 
And that’s something I can very much decide for my own here.
Also to address the external antenna issue.
The forum raised these issues a couple of years ago, yet Athom pressed ahead with the same design for Mini and Pro 2026, so the statement has no credibility
Since you are asking me personally, here is my answer.
In my professional career, I worked as Senior Project Coordinator for a large public-interest facility covering approximately 55,000 m², with around 600 employees and roughly 2,000 visitors per day.
I managed major construction and renovation projects worth several million euros, including the complete refurbishment of a large conference centre and a training centre with more than 30 classrooms.
I worked with large companies on KNX installations, Honeywell on the facility’s central building-management system and Crestron on the conference centre. At the same time, I also worked successfully with small one-person companies.
Much of my success was based on three simple principles:
Based on my experience so far, Homey would not pass any of these criteria and would no longer be selected by me for a professional project. Unfortunately, I realised this too late in my private installation.
However, I have always acknowledged that companies can change and improve over time.
So where did I get this impression from? From my direct experience with Homey, the way my support case has been handled and what I have observed over a longer period.
Edit: Here is another example of what I consider a poor decision.
I wanted to build my own ESP32-based Matter-over-Thread devices. Homey, however, only accepts certified Matter devices. Home Assistant and even Apple allow uncertified devices to be commissioned. Apple displays a clear warning, but ultimately leaves the decision to the user.
That difference says a lot about the intended audience. Homey may be a good system for mainstream users who want a controlled and simplified environment. Power users, however, quickly run into artificial limitations and are likely to become disappointed once they try to go beyond the predefined use cases.
Absolutely.
I can understand that the original design may have appeared to be a reasonable decision in 2023. Honestly, I suspect Athom was pleased that the Zigbee chipset already present in Homey could also be used for Thread through a firmware change. At that point, reusing the existing hardware probably looked efficient and attractive.
I can understand that original decision.
What I cannot understand is why the 2026 model was released with essentially only a memory upgrade. Why did the Mini receive an integrated Ethernet port while the significantly more expensive Homey Pro still requires an adapter?
A forward-looking company could have used the 2026 revision to add integrated Ethernet and perhaps a second USB port for future hardware expansion, such as external radio coordinators or antennas.
Even one fully featured USB-C port with proper hub support could open many possibilities—not only for external antennas, but also for other future extensions. I am not even certain whether the existing USB-C port provides full data and peripheral support or is primarily intended for power and Ethernet through the official adapter.
As you said, these are not newly discovered concerns. They involve long-standing limitations and repeated user requests.
I previously used a SkyConnect with Home Assistant. Based simply on my own practical experience, I replaced it with two dedicated radio coordinators long before Home Assistant officially recommended separating Zigbee and Thread.
Increasingly, I get the impression that the people making these decisions at Athom do not use a Homey Pro as extensively in their own homes as demanding users do. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand how some of these practical limitations and long-standing problems could remain unnoticed or be given so little priority.
This thread started as a discussion about Matter problems. It then became a Home Assistant versus Homey debate, and now it is beginning to address the possible root cause: Athom’s willingness—or unwillingness—to critically evaluate its own hardware, support processes and strategic decisions.
But will any of this actually be heard and taken seriously?
At the moment, I have little confidence that it will.
But in this whole lengthy thread I only see two people that seem to think that the hardware of Homey is not fit for purpose and that it needs all kinds of fancy stuff like “external radio coordinators and antennas”. Which probably would make the hardware a lot more expensive than most Homey users would be willing to pay.
If you think you need that kind of hardware then clearly Homey is not the right product for you.
You apparently aren’t aware of the many posts from many people that have stability issues with Zigbee and/or Thread?
I am. But I am not convinced that this is all caused by the Homey Pro hardware design.
And yet, many people that migrate to a different Zigbee platform suddenly experience no issues whatsoever anymore. Homey seems to be exceptionally sensitive to having all planets aligned exactly right before it will work in a stable fashion.
Please stay on topic “Matter devices are unavailable” and take off-topic discussions in appropriate topics/categories.
Is discussing the possible reasons why Matter devices become unavailable really off-topic?
In my view, the topic is not only that Matter devices are unavailable, but also what could cause this behaviour. Otherwise the discussion becomes limited to reporting symptoms without discussing possible explanations or solutions.
I fully agree that broader platform debates should move to another topic, but technical discussion about why this issue happens seems directly related.
