Ikea launches smart home offensive in the Matter standard

Samuel Buchmann

10.7.2025

Translation: machine translated

The Swedish furniture retailer is relying on the open Matter standard for its future smart home portfolio. New products should be easier to integrate into different systems.

Ikea is realigning its smart home strategy and will be focussing on Matter and Thread as central standards in future. Manager David Granath explains this in an interview with «The Verge». From January 2026, the company will be launching over 20 new smart products on the brand. These include lamps, sensors and remote controls that can be integrated into various systems - even without Ikea's own hub.

Matter is a cross-industry standard developed by companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon. It is designed to simplify compatibility between devices from different manufacturers and make setup easier. Thread is an energy-efficient wireless protocol for mesh networks that is specifically designed for smart devices such as sensors or lamps.

Until now, Ikea has primarily relied on Zigbee, another energy-saving wireless protocol with a mesh structure, which, however, requires its own hub and is less open to other platforms. Ikea's existing Dirigera hub will still be able to integrate Zigbee devices. A firmware update will soon turn Dirigera into a Matter hub. It also activates an already installed but previously inactive Thread transmitter.

New own speakers instead of Sonos

As part of the new strategy, Ikea recently ended its collaboration with Sonos. The jointly developed Symfonisk speakers are being sold off and no new products from the collaboration are planned. Existing devices will continue to be supplied with software updates. Instead, Ikea will launch its own Bluetooth speakers on the market in future. The first two models are an affordable retro speaker and a table lamp with a built-in speaker.

By switching to Matter and Thread, Ikea wants to make it easier to integrate its devices into various smart home ecosystems and increase the choice for users. The new products can be integrated directly into systems such as Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa or Samsung SmartThings. Conversely, the Dirigera hub will also be able to control Matter products from other suppliers after the update.

Samuel Buchmann

Senior Editor

Samuel.Buchmann@digitecgalaxus.ch

My fingerprint often changes so drastically that my MacBook doesn't recognise it anymore. The reason? If I'm not clinging to a monitor or camera, I'm probably clinging to a rockface by the tips of my fingers.

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