@ErMejoo
Just be aware when using Mutliprotocol Support, you are using the same radio hardware to do both Thread and ZigBee. If you use different channels, it will cause issues, especially as you build your network as the radio is constantly switching channels.
You should use the same channel for your Thread and Zigbee network. It’s like having 1 WiFi access point broadcasting two SSID’s. They will be on the same WiFi channel.
That is why you get a warning about different channels.
Thanks @brendan for the expand. In fact I have been patiently waiting for the channel change to be supported for ZigBee, this was added recently and we are now able to change ZigBee channel and then merge the SkyConnect network with the Google Nest network, I can confirm this worked for me and I now have one unique network with the internal and external border routers, really nice! Just missing any thread devices now 
It’s been semi supported in yaml for a while, but probably not ideal as apparently you need to repair everything.
Also, when choosing channels, unless you have issues, channel 15 is the best one. Some of the more unusual channels are not supported by all devices.
20 would be my second choice if 15 gets interference
Yeah exactly, the YALM solution was pretty dirty, this is now in the GUI of ZHA within the integration configuration and it did go ahead flawlessly for me, all devices reconnected on their own.
Channel-wise, in this case channel was forced to 18 as used by the Google Nest network, as I’m not sure if/how we are able to change that channel in the first place, so the change was in ZHA from 15 to 18, and then through the Thread integration I could add the HA network to the Nest one. Is there anything we are in control of re. Google’s Thread network channel, can it be changed?
can you share some info on how it was done? I am struggling to find details on that…
how can you add thread/matter devices?
i cant.
If you have Apple TBR devices & HomeKit-compatible Thread device:
- Install HomeKit Controller integration in HA
- Add the thread-capable device to HomeKit (via standard method/Apple device + Home app)
- wait till the device has transitioned to Thread (vs Bluetooth for example)
- remove the device from HomeKit
- check HA for notification from HomeKit Controller add-on
(HA should immediately generate a notification allowing you to pair the device with it)
This method does not require a SkyConnect/other USB dongle (works in a VM for me)
Though this worked for me when running hass os in Hyper-V, unfortunately I’ve noticed it stops working in other situations:
- hass os running in QEMU/ProxMox
- “Server For Home Assistant” macOS app
Hi all. With the new developer beta firmware for my HomePod Mini, in the iOS flame app, I am seeing thread version as 1.3.0. Is there any way I can merge the Apple thread network with other thread networks? I investigated a bit but can’t figure anything out. Hopefully this knowledge helps.
Good background article on where we are with shared thread networks/credentialing.
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i got no homekit.
so i will not be able to use the “new standard communication network that works in EVERY system the same”-shit…
I just received my HA Yellow box, a few days ago and now I am trying to integrate my thread network (2 AppleTVs as Border Router) so that I can see my EVE devices (they are thread only) in HomeAssistant.
I have installed the MultiProtocol Add-on and activated it.
This is what I see in the Thread Integration:
As per the Thread Matter & Thread: where we’re at I would expect to be able to make MyHome2 the Thread Network for HA, but I do not find a way to do that, i.e. the “Make Preferred Network” is missing.
I am relatively new to HA, so would appreciate easy to follow guidance 
Many thanks in advance!
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My guess, is that you would need to set up Eve Matter devices in apple home, then onboard those Matter devices into home assistant with the secondary Matter code derived from the apple Home.app.
Only under that scenario would the Apple thread network share credentials with HA yellow thread network.
My best guess is…at the moment, HA does not have a way to get to the Apple Thread Credentials for a given Apple Thread network, and unless it can get to the Thread Credentials, it can not make an Apple Thread network a “preferred” network.
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Thanks, unfortunately EVE has not released Matter upgrades for Thermostat and Aqua devices (yet), which are the ones I have. I do have one EVE Door, which I upgraded to Matter, and that worked as you described
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Glad that it appears to work as expected. Can you tell if the HA yellow switched thread channels? I have read that Apple defaults to channel 25, but don’t know if that is true. HA is usually on zigbee/thread channel 15, unless I am mistaken.
Hi Vesalius, thanks for your help. HA was still on channel 15, I changed it to 25 and rebooted the whole system. Unfortunately this did not help. U think I should try all channels? Every channel change take 5 -6 minutes including reboot. I have searched the Web for Info on Apple’s channel use, have not found anything useful so far
Rereading seems the caveat might be that after onboarding the matter device into the home.app (after which your iOS device will store the apple thread credentials) you also have to use an iOS device (logged into the same icloud account to be sure) to manage HA and onboard the Matter device into HA using the secondary codes from apple home. Only under those circumstances will apple share the apple thread credentials with a 3rd party at the moment.
Thanks Vesalius, it’s getting just a little too technical for me. I have integrated a matter device that is not the issue.
My issue is that I have a network of Thread Devices (EVE) which I would like to integrate into HA.
Unfortunately when I use the Thread Integration, it does not allow me to select my AppleTV Border Router (or vice versa) to make it the Preferred Network. (see my post 32 of Aug 7). I have worked my way thru Channels 26 → 19, no luck. Will try the rest going down to 11 but am not hopeful that it will yield success.
Any tips on layman’s level would be appreciated
Not sure of an easy explanation or fix, yet. Manually forcing the HA and Apple thread networks on the same channel will not help you so I would not waste more time there. Don’t expect to be able choose the Apple network as your preferred network in HA either for the time being (apple has to make some coding changes first). In fact it likely will only cause interference in the current state of thread.
I seem fixated on the thread over matter device because that one should be the easiest to use with both systems. I keep going back there because currently the only way forward for a unified network is doing things in specific order and using an apple device to manage the onboarding into apple home and then HA. If you really want to try to make this work I would remove any matter over thread devices (all thread really) from HA, then re-add one to HA, but use your iphone to do it.