Smart home company Eve began rolling out a firmware update in December that adds Matter support to Eve Energy, Eve Motion, and Eve Doors and Windows. I’m testing the new Matter integration to see how the devices work with a standard HomeKit setup.
I have Eve Energy, Eve Motion, and Eve Door and Window accessories, which have been out for a while but have been updated to work with Matter. If you’re not familiar with Mater, it’s a newly released smart home standard that Apple, Samsung, Google, Amazon, and other smart home manufacturers have adopted. Matter is designed to add smart home accessories to any smart home platform that supports the Matter standard.
So Matter-enabled devices from Eve can be added to ‘HomeKit’, or used with Google and Amazon’s smart home platforms, and iPhone and Android smartphone users in the same family can control accessories with their respective devices. HomeKit, meanwhile, only needs to be accessed from Apple and an Apple device
I don’t want to go into too much detail on the specifics of the Eve accessories since this review is mostly for the Matter experience, but I’ll give a quick rundown. Eve Motion is a motion detector designed to allow you to activate lights and other devices when motion is detected. Eve doors and windows are attached to a door and can notify you when the door is opened, both for warning purposes and to activate other accessories in the automation. Eve Energy is a smart plug, so you can plug anything in and then control it with your Apple device and Siri commands.
All three have Matter support, but right now, Matter needs to be added via a firmware update. So if you already own these devices or bought them with the intention of using them with Matter, be prepared to add new software. Assuming new in the box devices, the first step is to add them to HomeKit.
Adding them to HomeKit requires opening the Home app and scanning the QR code, just like any other HomeKit product. Once this is done, the Eve app will be required and you will need to give it access to your home setup. Matter support isn’t officially available yet, but Eve has a testflight version of the app that users can sign up for to test Matter through the Early Access Program.
One of Eve’s supported devices and in addition to access to the Eve TestFlight app, requires a device running iOS 16.2, such as a home hub, including HomePod mini or Apple TV 4K.
With the TestFlight version of the Eve app and an Eve Door & Window, Eve Energy, or Eve Motion device added to HomeKit, the Eve app can download a firmware update to install Matter. Converting to Matter is a one-time irreversible swap, so once you’ve upgraded your Eve device to Matter, there’s no going back.
The upgrade process isn’t difficult, but it isn’t easy either. Eve app will take you step by step from creating a new Matter QR code. Used to set up HomeKit HomeKit devices to view Mater QR codes. This code completely replaces a ‘HomeKit’ code, so you’ll need to make sure to save a copy of it, which the Eve app reminds you of multiple times.
In fact, you can’t go through the setup process without printing or saving a copy of the new Mater code, and you want to keep it like the ‘HomeKit’ code. Because the Matter code replaces the HomeKit code, your existing HomeKit code is no good. In the future, Matter Codes will be printed on devices like HomeKit codes, but right now for firmware updates, it’s important to keep Matter Codes extra secure.
Setup will require a printout of the Mater QR code or a secondary device because after receiving the new code, you’ll need to scan the Eve product with your primary device to pair it with the Mater. Next, there’s a HomeKit–to-Matter migration process, which took about 10 minutes in my testing.
When Mate-compatible devices are on store shelves and no longer require firmware updates, setting up devices will be easier. In fact, it’s basically going to be the same as setting up a HomeKit device right now, so if you’re already familiar with HomeKit setup, it should be fairly painless.
In the Home app, Matter devices work just like ‘HomeKit’ devices and I can’t tell any difference in functionality. In the Eve app, I can see that a device is “Matter” and not “HomeKit”, but the Home app doesn’t give me any specific indication.
Controlling a Matter device is indistinguishable from controlling a standard ‘HomeKit’ device, which is how it’s supposed to work. Automation, scenes and schedules continue to work as expected in the Home app and through the Eve app. I’d like to point out that Eve devices are Thread enabled, and are intended to offer better integration with Thread devices than standard Bluetooth.
I’ve been using Eve devices with Matter for over a week now, and performance is about the same as I got with HomeKit, but I’m having an ongoing issue with Eve Energy. It disconnects every day or two and it stops communicating with my home setup and becomes accessible in the home app. I also have this problem with HomeKit-enabled smart plugs, but usually not with this frequency. I asked Eve about the issue and was told that it was a known issue that would be resolved with an upcoming update.
This is indeed a known issue with the Home Hub software version and the current combination of our accessories. In most cases the accessory can still be reached for custom functionality, such as the ID feature in the Eve app. We’re working closely with Apple to identify what’s wrong, but in the meantime, rebooting Home Hubs usually helps for a while. Removing accessories from the home and adding them back in may help for a short time, but they will likely wear off again after a while. Overall, future updates to iOS and Eve apps, including firmware, should alleviate the problem over time.
I’m an Apple user with a HomeKit setup so I don’t have insight into how Eve’s Matter devices work with other platforms like Google Home and Samsung SmartThings, but for HomeKit users, I can confirm that Matter is essentially the same experience as HomeKit. , no major changes are expected from the cross-platform Matter device.
However, there is a difference. You can use HomeKit products without a home hub (HomePod Mini or Apple TV), but they are required for Mater because Mater devices require a Mater controller. So you shouldn’t pick up a Matter accessory or upgrade your HomeKit devices to Matter without one.
If you have someone in your home who uses an Android smartphone and isn’t able to access smart home products, Matter will make a big difference. Similarly, Android users who wanted access to products like Eve Energy and Eve Motion will now be able to use these devices that were once Apple Home exclusives.
From ‘HomeKit’, you can add a second platform like Google Home to your home setup to control your devices with Google Hub or Android smartphone. Just open the Apple Home app, long-press the tile for the Eve product, select Settings, and then tap “Turn on pairing mode.” You will need a Matter Controller other smart home platform, so if you want to use your Mater devices with HomeKit and Google Home, for example, you have a HomePod Mini/Apple TV And Something like the Nest Mini or the Hub Max.
Amazon hasn’t implemented full Mater support yet (setup works on Android smartphones), but many Echo devices will work with Mater, so in the future you’ll be able to control smart home products with your iPhone and your Amazon Echo/Nest Hub. . The issue will be most beneficial to those using the two smart home platforms, but it will expand the number of smart home products available to ‘HomeKit’ users and so far, there doesn’t seem to be any major hassles to deal with when making the transition. .
By the end of March, Eve will sell Matter-enabled devices that work out of the box and don’t need to update their firmware before Matter integration works, which will be more convenient. Later in the year, Eve plans to update other Thread products with Matter support. Eve Matter-compatible devices can be purchased from the Eve website or Amazon.
