Finally got my hands on the Honeywell X2S Smart Thermostat (RTH2XWF). I was excited since its announcement at CES 2025. All the marketing reported the X2S as the first “matter-enabled” thermostat. Based on this claim, I expected that the thermostat could be configured using the Matter server in Home Assistant, since the Matter protocol is specifically designed to allow for local configuration – THIS COULDN’T BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.
The X2S can be configured as a dumb thermostat without internet connection, but in order to configure its smart functionality, you have to use the Residio First Alert app. The app requires account creation and WILL NOT CONFIGURE the thermostat without geolocation. Once the thermostat is configured, it takes 20+ minutes for the thermostat to appear in the app. Furthermore the thermostat DOES NOT support WPA3 encryption, and would only connect to my Wifi network after changing network encryption to WPA2.
Bluetooth and Wifi are both disabled out of the box. There is a setting on the thermostat where the user can indicate configuration using the app; this will power-on the bluetooth radio. However, the thermostat IS NOT discoverable by either HA or other bluetooth devices.
If you were hoping for a locally configurable, Matter enabled thermostat made by a mainstream hardware manufacturer, the Honeywell X2S fails in every conceivable way.
Oh, that is so disappointing, like you I had high hopes for this!
One more question: I understand that the whole setup process is really messed up, but if one goes through all of that, can one end up with a thermostat that can be controlled via matter?
I spoke to Resideo Support this afternoon. They confirmed that users MUST create a Resideo account to configure smart features. So, either this is Honeywell/Resideo engaged in intentionally misleading false advertising or they plan on software updates in the future to fulfill their promise of supporting Matter. Time will tell.
On the bright side, I did discover the thermostat DOES support WPA3 if KRACK countermeasures are disabled during the setup process (OpenWRT router).
And once you created an account, can one configure matter then? I wouldn’t mind creating an account for the setup, if I can then use local control during normal day-to-day operations.
No you can’t. I got one of these a couple weeks ago through Ace Hardware, not sure how they were for sale at that point because according to Honeywell they weren’t available yet. I went through the pain of setting up an account for their annoying app and all that assuming that would lead me to Matter setup like their documentation suggests and no luck. There is even a listing on the Connectivity Standards Alliance database but there is definitely no support for Matter anywhere in this product. The cert is for firmware version 2.0.0.0 and I’m on firmware 1.00.01.00 so maybe its in the pipeline but its very misleading advertising. I’m probably keeping mine because it was fairly cheap and it works well enough as a dumb upgrade to my even dumber old thermostat. Hopefully the new firmware comes out soon and I can use it like I had intended.
New user so I can only put one picture into a post but here’s a screenshot from the Connectivity Standards Alliance page showing the certification with firmware version 2.0.0.0.
