Ward Zhou

It’s another year of Matter Open Day, hosted by the CSA Member Group China, and this year’s event felt noticeably bigger than previous editions. More companies brought live demos instead of concept slides, while booth space was increasingly occupied by complete Matter product portfolios rather than individual showcase devices. Walking around the show floor, one thing became clear. Matter and Thread are no longer experimental options.

IKEA’s latest DIRIGERA firmware update introduces a newer Matter Controller and reduces mDNS network traffic, signaling a push for better reliability in large smart home setups. Ward Zhou 1 hour ago Please note: This page may contain affiliate links. Read our ethics policy IKEA has released a new firmware update for its DIRIGERA hub, bringing a newer Matter Controller alongside several Matter and Thread optimizations.

ESPHome, an open source project that provides alternative firmware for Espressif chipsets, has just announced its breakthrough 2026.6 update. Under the Open Home Foundation, the same organization behind Home Assistant and Matter.JS, ESPHome is now much more accessible to average users, following the same path Home Assistant has taken over the past few years. Building homemade devices is now easier with a visual configuration interface instead of the complex, grammar-sensitive YAML editor.