Hey there,
Matter is picking up traction. A lot of new devices support this standard. And even more will. Just click on “show all participants” on this site: https://buildwithmatter.com/
Did Athom already make an official statement? I cant find anything…
Kind regards,
Jan
Athom doesn’t really make official statements in terms of future features, so I think it’s anyone’s guess (at least here on the community forum) if Homey will support it or not. However, at least the current hardware (both Bridge and Pro) doesn’t support the Thread protocol, which (AFAIK) is a requirement for Matter support.
No, Homey hasn’t commented on that yet. However, Athom will not be able to block itself, otherwise they will go bankrupt. The only question here is whether an update is possible, or whether a new Homey is coming and we can throw away our current ball.
There is no Thread stack available for the current hardware (because it’s outdated and too limited), and I doubt Athom will write their own stack. But apart from that, even it a stack existed, you’d have to make a choice between either Zigbee or Thread.
Why would you need to make such a choice? Why would they not co-exist?
Because there’s only one 802.15.4-capable chip inside Homey.
So yes. If you want Thread, you can throw the current Homey in the dustbin.
But the Homey Pro could still support Matter and connect to Thread border routers I think. So in that respect it could connect to a Thread network over WiFi, but it just needs a hub (border router) inbetween. I am sure that many hubs will become available for thread in the future.
https://openthread.io/guides/border-router#border_router_services
True, perhaps it would even be possible to create a “Matter” app. You’ll just need another hub to complement “the only smart hub you’ll ever need” 
Good opportunity for Athom to come out with the Homey Bridge Pro, which adds Thread and WiFi to the present Homey Bridge interfaces 
The design choices that were made for the current Bridge don’t suggest to me that that will happen any time soon 
It’s very simple ‘ecosystems’ logic: if the marketplace moves to matter (in a significant way) and Homey does not, then they are out of business soon (within a few years).
Maybe add a couple more features then put it into a white sphere with an LED ring … 
I hope they can do something, I have a normal homey, I want to be able to work even when I am without internet. I hope it works on the homey, I can’t buy a new homey every 2 years, my situation doesn’t allow it.
If that’s the question. Then another question arise: if there is only 1 platform…. (Youknow the rest)
Yes, and no transition period or a situation where people would like to use both their “old” Zigbee devices and “new” Thread devices together.
The current “Pro” hardware has been largely unchanged for +5 years. By the looks of it, convergence on Matter is going pretty slow, I personally doubt there will be much demand for it in the next two years (if ever).
It would hardly be unreasonable if a new product generation is required to support protocols that wasn’t even discussed when the original product was introduced.
Don’t get me wrong, nice if it can be implemented on the current version, but let’s have realistic expectations when it comes to feature growth on a platform that is already pretty old.
Sure, but you’d expect the Bridge to at least be a bit more flexible(/capable).
Agreed, releasing Bridge without provisions for Thread might prove to be a poor decision, depending on if Matter gains any real traction. I think that remains to be seen, despite all the big dragons being in on it, they may end up pulling in completely different directions.
In a sense, implementing Matter for Homey in the Cloud might be easier than for the Pro, but the inability of the Bridge to access any Matter devices would make it moot.
Wouldn’t it be enough to have a device that supports Matter/Thread like a Homepod and Homey can easily communicate with devices connected to that device?
