Helpful hints

Configuration Matter/Thread
1

These are the recommended/supported scenarios for Matter at this time:

  • Use the HA Companion app on iPhone or Android to commission a Wi-Fi based Matter device (using the phone to do the bluetooth commissioning to te device).

  • Use the HA Companion app on iPhone to commission a Thread based Matter device utilizing existing Apple Border router(s) like Homepod or ATV 4K.

  • Use the HA Companion app on Android to commission a Thread based Matter device utilizing existing Google Border router(s) like Nest Hub V2 or Nest WiFi Pro.

  • Receive a shared device (existing Matter device in Apple Home, Google Home, Smartthings etc.) in HA. Supported but you need the HA Companion app as well for the time being.

  • Commission a Matter bridge device to HA (e.g. Aqara or Switchbot Hub). Supported but you need the HA Companion app as well for the time being.

General recommendations when working with Matter devices:

  • It is recommended to use Home Assistant OS, we have optimized it to work well with the protocol.

  • Use a flat network, make sure that Home Assistant is on the same (v)LAN as your Matter devices and Border Router(s). Do not attempt to route the matter traffic.

  • Make sure that your network is properly set-up for IPv6 as Matter is entirely based on IPv6.

  • Some networking gear provide options to forward mDNS packets to different (v)LANMS, make sure to disable any of these “Multicast DNS” options in your networking setup. Even enabling such a forwarder on a flat network can cause Matter to malfunction. It may work well in your case for Airplay or Chromecast but Matter is based on IPv6.

  • While commissioning devices, make sure the phone you use running the HA Companion app for commissioning is on the same (v)LAN as your HA and network gear. If you have multiple WiFi SSID’s make sure to set the phone at the (2,4Ghz) SSID to be used for the WiFi based matter device.

  • While commissioning devices, make sure the phone you use running the HA Companion app is close to the device because Bluetooth is used to do the initial commissioning (sending credentials etc).

  • When commissioning a Thread based device, make sure its also in close range to the Border router

If you want to play with the HA Yellow or SkyConnect to be used as Thread radio (and thus Thread Border router):

  • Make sure to use Home Assistant OS (no support for docker or other installs)

  • Install of HAOS on bare-metal is recommended, we’ve seen issues being reported with virtualization like Proxmox.

  • Use the Thread Only firmware and not Multi-PAN (unless you’re feeling adventurous and want to help out debugging issues with it).

  • You NEED an Android Phone with the HA Companion app for commissioning of devices, iOS will NOT work, also Google Home needs to be setup as well as your phone needs a logged in Google account.

  • Be aware that the the SkyConnect/Yellow has the same limitations as with a Zigbee network with just one coordinator. Make sure to put at least one routing device close to the SkyConnect, range is limited, especially with a lot of other signals on the channel.

With Multi-PAN (running both Zigbee and Thread at the same time) we currently experience an issue with the firmware crashing so its not recommended as daily driver although we highly appreciate people testing it and providing us diagnostics how to reproduce. Also, Multi-PAN is only suitable for small networks (both zigbee and thread) as the radio is shared.

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