Wanted to share my initial experience with the new-ish Govee LED Strip Light M1 with Matter support.
After a couple of failed attempts at getting the strip to connect to Home Assistant via the instructions in the Matter guide included with the lights, I double-checked my router and realized that I did not have IPv6 enabled.
According to the Matter guide included with the lights, IPv6 is REQUIRED for using the lights with Matter, which is pretty important info to know before you make the decision to buy these. I didn’t realize this was a requirement, and while I was able to get the light strip connected to Home Assistant via Matter after enabling IPv6 in my router, I’m not sure whether the limited functionality offered by the strip under Matter (literally just on/off, color and color temperature selection, and dimming) is worth the hassle.
In fairness to Govee, they do list the IPv6 requirement under “Preparation for Matter” in the product listing on Amazon, but it’s pretty easy to miss.
The hardware is nice, and well-packaged, so if you’re looking for some nice, albeit pricey, LED strips to start testing Matter support in your Home Assistant, I can say they do work once IPv6 is enabled. And pairing was pretty darn convenient just scan the QR code, and add to HA. There is not a great deal of functionality available via Matter and HA, however, just on/off, color, and color temperature.
While pairing with the Govee app is also convenient, it requires an account, and cloud connectivity. No thanks.
It’s encouraging to see vendors starting to add Matter support to their products, but as long as the majority of the cool features of a strip like this are limited to the vendor’s app, it’s really not a great step forward, IMO.
Anyone else try one of these? What are your thoughts?