Ikea’s new, affordable smart home products are something of a litmus test for the Matter standard. Never before have so many devices with the Thread radio protocol been sold in one fell swoop. And more people than ever before have come into contact with the topic. A large-scale field trial – with apparently mixed results.
While the test setup of matter-smarthome with a dozen Ikea products works almost flawlessly, users on the online forum Reddit complain about connection problems (link). Some of them fail even at the setup stage. Colleagues at The Verge share these observations: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, one of the most experienced Matter reporters on the planet, was only able to get one of six new purchases up and running (link).
David Granath from Ikea confirmed to her that there are complications: “We are aware that some customers are experiencing connection issues when setting up their devices in certain home environments, and we take that very seriously,” the Range Manager Lighting & Home Electronics told The Verge.
In an interview with matter-smarthome six months earlier, Granath still sounded confident: “Both Thread and Matter are at a point as technologies where we feel we have the possibility to achieve the right level of quality, price and reliability that we need.” So was the launch premature? Is Thread not yet mature enough as a wireless protocol for home use?
A Difficult Start
It became clear early on that Matter over Thread would not be a sure-fire success. From day one, the wireless protocol caused confusion. Consumers who had never heard of the technology were frustrated when they were suddenly confronted with technical requirements such as the Border Router.
Manufacturers developed their first products under laboratory conditions, only to discover in the real world that standardization did not go far enough. And the platforms viewed Matter primarily as a vehicle for expanding their own ecosystems. They had not considered what would happen when Border Routers from different providers encountered each other in the home.
“This is not yet the desired condition,” admitted Stefan Bauer-Schwan, Head of Development at Eve Systems, just a few months after Matter‘s launch in the summer of 2023. Manufacturers such as Nanoleaf and Netatmo distanced themselves from Thread, and the remedial work began. Both the Thread Group, responsible for the wireless protocol, and the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) on the Matter side tightened their specifications. Thread 1.4 (2024) and Matter 1.4 (2025) laid the foundations for smoother operation.
The Measures Are Having an Effect
A number of providers have begun implementing these specifications. The Matter ecosystems from Ikea and SmartThings now use Thread version 1.4. Home Assistant recently began testing it in the beta version of its Open Thread Border Router app (formerly known as an add-on). More information on the current situation can be found in the article “The Matter Standard 2026 – A Status Review.” However, it will likely be months before all platforms have followed suit. And it remains to be seen whether this will resolve the issues.
Unfortunately, Matter provides its users with little insight into why a connection fails when it does. A “Thread Network Diagnostics Cluster” is defined in the standard, which could supply information. Affected products might use it to provide data, for example, on the network’s radio channel, the role of the device (router, end device), its immediate neighbors in the mesh, and the forwarding of radio signals (routing).
However, the implementation is still in its infancy. None of the major Matter ecosystems use the feature transparently. At least beta testers of the current Home Assistant Matter server (v 8.2.2) can display a map of their Thread network on the screen. Our colleagues at matteralpha.com explain how to activate it in an article (link).
Matter Has Not Yet Reached its Goal
Without information about where the connection problems arise, it is difficult for users and support staff to identify the source of an error. Is it in the device itself, a weak wireless connection on site, the ecosystem software, or simply an operating error? Ikea attempts to cover the most important points with a collection of FAQs (link). Tips for a stable Thread network can also help. However, this level of troubleshooting does not meet the general expectation that Matter should work “out of the box.”
Whatever the specific reason may be, the negative headlines give the impression that Matter over Thread does not operate reliably. Even if the majority of Ikea products sold work smoothly (as they do for us), criticism of the rest falls back on the standard. The manufacturers in the Connectivity Standards Alliance can’t ignore this. They should implement the agreed improvements as quickly as possible so that Thread does not become Matter‘s Achilles heel.
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