Ikea's new Matter-Ready Dirigera smart home hub is hitting retail shelves in North America and most of Europe this week. Ikea is trying to bring the home with digital intelligence by using dirigera. The company has grown from a simple lighting hobby to a full-blown strategic focus as important to the 79-year-old company as beds and Billy bookcases. Hardware and software that is easy to setup, easy to use, and stable is what Ikea struggled to deliver with its first Gateway.
I have been living with the Dirigera hub for the last week and have been using the new app to migrate 22 devices from my old gateway to my new one. Everything went well, except for one hiccup. It was so smooth that I was shocked after years of frustration with Ikea's old gateway which often struggled to add devices and then maintain connections to them over time.
Right now, there is no support for Matter. Even if the Dirigera hub costs twice as much as the old Gateway, Ikea still gets the basics right.
Ikea doesn't offer a tool to migrate existing devices and scenes from the Trdfri Gateway to the Dirigera hub. Some will be bothered by that. I didn't mind because my Ikea setup was in need of a complete redesign and I didn't want it to drift into a zombie-like state. I was avoiding the frustration of trying to fix things again because of another system glitch or software update.
It's sometimes necessary to start over.
Unless you're a Swede, I can guarantee that however you're pronouncing Dirigera in your head right now is wrong. This is how you say it, or would if you could, but you can't:It is possible to add existing devices to the Dirigera hub without removing them from the Trdfri Gateway. You don't have to open the old Home smart app in order to use it. Dirigera will find the devices for quick and easy inclusion into new or existing rooms, if you follow the steps in the new "Home smart" app. The new app is organized by rooms that correspond to your actual home layout, not by groups of devices that are supposed to be steering devices. Devices can be bulk added into rooms. There are three Ikea smart spotlights on the same physical switch. The Home smart app allowed me to reset and add all three spots at once.
The Home smart app is now in the rooms.
Clicking into a room gives you more control.
There are 25 Ikea smart devices in my home that sit alongside dozens of others from other vendors. A mix of light bulbs, switches, dimmers, outlets, and sensors are part of my Ikea network. Despite being scattered across three floors of my tall but narrow home, all but one Ikea device was found and added on the first try.
The Home smart app has a dashboard that is easy to use. Each room has a square in it's color. You can control the smart devices in each room with interactive icons inside the squares. If you click the square, you will find more control over the devices.
There was only one problem I ran into when I added devices. The first issue was related to legacy devices and the second was related to the Dirigera.
Ikea's new Home smart app isn't compatible with older Sonos S1 networks and devices like the first generation Play:5 speaker because Dirigera only supports speakers that can run the S2 operating system. All is not lost since Dirigera supports integrations with other companies. If you want to create cross- platform scenes with Ikea devices, you can use the Sonos S1 device.
When trying to add Ikea's Symfonisk Table Lamps to the Home smart app, I failed. On the first try, the app found it and started playing music. Ikea's new Home smart app didn't detect the new speaker as it should After a few days of trying to reset the speaker and move it between networks, I finally got the Ikea app to find it. Ikea says it is a bug that will be fixed with the next software release.
Adding devices to the Dirigera was simple and fast, with the app offering clear step-by-step instructions with useful animations to idiot-proof the whole process. The days of adding a wireless switch to the Gateway to control the bulb from the old Home smart app are over. The animation helps the new owner through the process.
New animations make it easier to add devices.
There are helpful device illustrations in scenes now.
I don't know if the long-term stability of the system is stable. I'm less than a week in and it's been stable so far. The system is responsive, with lights turning on and off in a fraction of a second after pressing a pair of remotes. In my experience, voice commands are not unusual for smart homes, from Ikea or not. I can't say that my Dirigera setup is more responsive than my previous setup, but I can say that it is.
If everything remains operational after a few months without a software update or some other glitch, it will be a win.
When the Ikea Home smart app is open, users will feel useful feedback in their hands. A light being turned on is one of the actions represented by each pulse. When blinds are controlled, you feel a steady pulse as they roll into your desired position. Scenes can be pinned to the top of the home screen. When I hit the button to unpin a scene, it doesn't do anything but change the fill of the heart icon to the left of the button. It's weird. The scene was unpinned when exit the menu and go back in to see it. It's annoying but should be fixed quickly. Adding a shortcut button caused a bug. It was added to the Dirigera hub, but when I called it shortcut, it appeared in my device list. I renamed it to "shortcut", but then found two shortcut buttons, despite only having one physical shortcut button. One button was removed from the app. The button was added back to the Dirigera as a second cut. It's odd. Sometimes a filled circle is used to show that an item is selected, and other times an open circle is used. Pick a store. Ikea will keep pushing security updates for three more years. Dirigera doesn't support anything The Home smart app can be used to add and control non-Ikea devices, such as lightbulbs that run on Zigbee.
Now that the Dirigera hub and app are available, Ikea can focus on three other improvements that it already announced: Matter support, adding the hub to your router over wi-fi, and native remote access to Ikea smart devices when outside the home.
A common language for smart home devices to communicate in your home without relying on a cloud connection is provided by Matter. At launch, it will include smart sensors, smart lighting, smart plugs and switches, smart thermostats, connected locks, and media devices.
If you buy a smart home device that has the Matter logo on it, you should be able to use it with any Matter compatible device and platform. Devices compatible with matter should be available by the end of the year.
We expect to see updates on the smart home platforms that are signed on to support Matter over the next few months.
Now that device certifications have begun, we need Enabling Matter the most. Once everything is switched on, the Dirigera hub will be able to act as a Thread border routers. Ikea has a long-term commitment to Matter and the first step that we are targeting now is for Dirigera to become a Matter bridge. If the Dirigera hub is updated to Matter, Ikea devices can be used in Matter.
Dirigera supports integrations with Amazon, Apple, and others. I have all three enabled in my home and they are working well, allowing me to use Ikea's devices in my scenes and control them with voice commands.
Ikea isn't saying when it will offer wi-fi as a more flexible option for connecting the Dirigera hub to your home routers. The location of Dirigera in the home will be determined by the availability of internet access.
Ikea plans to launch its own cloud service in the first half of the next decade. If you need remote access to your Ikea smart devices from outside the home, you will have to use one of its integrations. I have no issues with the Apple Home app or the Apple TV.
I think Ikea has succeeded in lowering the Geek threshold with the new Home smart app and the Dirigera hub. It will take more time to judge stability, but so far it looks promising. Ikea has a smart home that is easy to setup and use.
Ikea has a smart home that is easy to set up and use.
Adding the first few devices made me wish for an expert mode to be used. I am far from Ikea's target audience of first time or novice smart home users looking for a very simple interface with help screens.
Ikea has spent the last few years reinventing itself as a furniture company that understands the role of technology in the home It simplified furniture transport and assembly in the same way that Dirigera did.
Bjorn Block, Ikea's smart home chief, told me that the preconditions for mass adoption were here. This could be a turning point for the adoption of smart home technology. Let's look back in a few more years. After a week with it, I can say that Ikea has learned from its early smart home mistakes and thatDigieria is off to a good start.
Thomas Ricker is the photographer for all screen grabs and photographs.
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