An Interview with David Granath, Range Manager Lighting & Home Electronics at IKEA. Starting in 2026, the company will be fully committed to the Matter standard and the Thread wireless protocol. matter-smarthome asked Granath about the reasons for this move and what’s planned for the coming year.
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What is Ikea’s vision for the smart home, and how does the Matter standard fit into it?
David Granath: For more than 80 years, IKEA has been helping people create a better everyday life at home through smart home furnishing solutions, and our approach to smart home is simply a continuation of that. We’re not building for tech enthusiasts, but for the many people who want affordable, reliable solutions that fit naturally into life at home. Our vision is to make smart living a seamless, accessible part of everyday life – not something complicated or exclusive. Matter helps us take a big step in that direction by making smart products simpler to set up, easier to use, and compatible across brands and systems.
Until now, Ikea has relied on Zigbee as its radio protocol, but the company is now switching to Thread. What led to this move, and why now?
Granath: We’re constantly evaluating our choice of technology. Zigbee was the best choice at the time and has, through “touch link,” provided customers with a simple way to connect bulbs and remotes without the need for any hub or app. Things like mesh networking and local control also played a role in that choice.
Matter is helping us solve some other customer needs in making smart living more accessible, and through the use of Thread we can keep some of the benefits of Zigbee. 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.
“Zigbee was the best choice at the time”
What will happen to customers who have so far relied on Zigbee/Trådfri products, and how will the transition be managed?
Granath: Customers with TRÅDFRI products, or ones that are based on Zigbee, will continue to be supported through the DIRIGERA hub. This is a natural transition where we gradually introduce new products using Thread and Matter. We’ll ensure that the Dirigera hub supports a mixed environment so people can continue using the products they already have while also adding new ones as they go. On top of that, since Zigbee and Thread are using the same radio, we can support seamless compatibility with touch link as well, where new Matter bulbs can be paired with older Zigbee remotes and vice versa. It’s very important for us that existing customers should not be left behind, which is also part of the timing.
Many consumers have never heard of Thread, especially those who are not early adopters. Ikea could give this technology a big boost. How are you dealing with this challenge?
Granath: We design for the everyday customer – someone who just wants products that are easy to use, reliable, and fit naturally into their home. Not tech-savvy, not an early adopter, just someone looking for smart solutions that work without the hassle. Therefore, we don’t expect our customers to know or care about technical standards. They just want things to work – easily and reliably. So while Thread and Matter are exciting under the hood, what matters most is what people experience: a smart product that connects quickly, works with others, and is easy to control. That’s what we focus on communicating.
“We’re doing a full range revamp with Matter”
What Matter-enabled product categories does Ikea plan to launch in 2026?
Granath: We’ll continue focusing on areas closely tied to life at home, like lighting, air, and sound – but as the range grows, we see new opportunities to meet even more needs. While we won’t share specifics just yet, we can confirm that we’re doing a full range revamp with Matter, and the first 20+ new products are coming in early 2026.
And which device types will the Matter controller support in the Dirigera hub?
Granath: Dirigera will primarily support the product types where Ikea offers products. That could be expanded in the future, but we want to focus our efforts on giving our product range great added value when connected to our hub and app.
Ikea already offers air purifiers, PV, wall boxes, speakers, etc. These are product categories that already exist in Matter or are in the works. Can we imagine Matter as the base layer for the future smart home portfolio from Ikea?
Granath: While a product type being part of the standard is a prerequisite for having it in our offer, it’s not how we select which product categories to develop. We always start from life at home and people’s needs and dreams. Where we see opportunities to greatly improve people’s homes by adding connected products while seeing a possibility to be affordable and having a clear Ikea identity, that’s where we have interest.
“We are actively exploring the future of sound at Ikea”
Will there be new Ikea speakers with multiroom functionality – as successors to the previous products developed in collaboration with Sonos?
Granath: Our collaboration with Sonos was a successful one and we continue to support all SYMFONISK products for a long time. We are exploring parallel directions to make sound more accessible and more integrated into everyday life. While our new speakers, NATTBAD and BLOMPRAKT, aren’t multiroom speakers, they can be easily paired with each other in a multi-speaker setup. This feature is built into certain Ikea Bluetooth speakers – not all models have it.
To set it up, simply connect your phone – or other device – to one speaker via Bluetooth. Then turn on another speaker and hold its pairing button until you hear a confirmation sound and see the light blink. The speakers will then play in sync. You can repeat the step to add more speakers. The connection works reliably within at least 10 meters between speakers, as long as your device stays close to the main speaker. For many people that adds value at a low cost. But of course we are actively exploring the future of sound at Ikea.
How involved is Ikea in the development of the Matter standard? Do you participate in working groups or focus more on implementation?
Granath: We are a long-time member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) and we have been deeply involved from the beginning – both as members of the board of directors and technical working groups. We contribute directly to the development of the standard and also share feedback based on what we learn from our customers.
Ikea was one of the first companies to commit to Matter. Looking at the standard’s development so far, are you satisfied with how things are going, or are there things you would like to see improved?
Granath: It often takes time for new technologies to consolidate and get to a point where they create real value for people. The smart home category has been in need of standardization to actually solve some of the big pain points people have, making the products truly valuable and thereby growing the industry. For us, Matter is the path forward; instead of hundreds of companies creating what’s good for them, we’ve now gotten together and created the foundation of what’s good for customers.
“The smart home category has been in need of standardization to solve some of the big pain points”
The foundation is laid, but we’re still in the beginning of the journey. The important thing now is to build trust with customers that Matter is reliable and easy to use. If we are successful with that, I’m confident there will be a lot of new development and innovation happening based on Matter that will really make people’s lives at home better.
Mr. Granath, thank you very much for this interview.
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