Matter controller?
Yes, every platform needs a Matter Controller to be able to control and manage Matter Devices. This is how local control and communications are handled for your platform Matter network.
In my case I have a Google Nest Hub Gen 2 as a Matter Controller for Google Home. Apple TV 4K for HomeKit, Echo Show 8 for Alexa, SmartThings Station for Smartthings and Home Assistant has its own Matter Controller as an AddOn so no separate device is needed.
Some platforms allow you to pair Matter devices without a Matter Controller but you won’t be able to properly control those devices nor run local automations.
I have one more question. If you add ihost to Hub Matter smartthings, and share it for google home. Is it possible to control ihost devices in Google Home without having Hub Matter Google?
I read somewhere that SmartThings and Google Home share devices.
But this is only relevant if you use Matter devices. You can map various devices within iHost to platforms such as Alexa or Google Home using Matter bridge. This way you can make the non-Matter protocol devices to be used in the platform that supports Matter.
You are correct that this is relevant if you use a Matter device and on this case iHost is a Matter device. A Matter bridge only translate whatever data the Zigbee/Wifi device generates to something a Matter Controller can understand…
So the only purpose of iHost as a Matter bridge is to make non-Matter protocol devices compatible with a Matter Controller.
The CSA has a really good video explaining how a Matter Network works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGPRIkqWh3g at the minute 3:50 is where they talk about Matter Bridges (such as iHost)
Unfortunately you can’t do that with Matter, you’ll need a Matter Controller from Google to connect to Google Home as well. What you could do is pair everything in Samsung Smartthings and link your account to Google Home but then you’d be using cloud to control your devices 
Gad to report that iHost CUBE v1.12.4 has resolved matter bridge pairing with applie homekit
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Got your feedback, thx.
The target issues addressed by iHost version 1.12.4 are the inability to add a Matter bridge and the wrong name after reboot.
Any good news？
It does not directly follow that the Matter bridge requires a hub. It is mentioned that the Matter bridge can be embedded in multiple devices, like controllers and hubs.
By the way, if this is how the ‘seamless user experience’ is supposed to look like, Matter is not much better than the solutions known, for example, from Zigbee.
Yeah, I agree… the user experience is not good. The only thing that they made easier for the users is to remove the necessity to link accounts, download drivers or install skills and instead everything is paired with a QR Code. And even that is bad when you have to share a device to a second platform since you can’t use the same QR Code, you have to generate another one from the first platform that you connected the device. It’s bad hahaha
I can confirm about the wrong name after reboot is fixed… not sure about the inability to pair since I did not experience this issue
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Unfortunately, the pairing with the Amazon platform still does not work for me. I have two Echo devices that theoretically support Matter and can be hubs. However, the documentation published by Amazon sucks and it’s hard to figure out. One thing I know for sure, both do not support Thread. But that doesn’t account for iHost and current issues. With version 1.11.x the pairing went easily. With 1.12.x it broke down. The messed-up names are a separate issue.
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Also, since my Ihost arrived, I haven’t been able to pair with Alexa
Other things I can’t do, I have 3 Philips hue lamps, I’ve already added them to the ewelink app but I can’t view them on Ihost, and everything I have on Ihost I can’t view on the app.
This is normal?
Please upgrade ihost to 1.13.0 and try to pair with Alexa again. There must be an Alexa Echo as the hub when pairing, and the hub and ihost need to be in the same network. In addition, ewelink app and iHost cannot interoperate. iHost serves as a local gateway and does not connect to the ewelink cloud server. If you use Philips lights in iHost, you need to add them again in iHost.
Hello, please make sure when your Alexa paired with Matter:
- The Alexa App is the latest version;
- Your Echo is supported as a Matter hub;
- iHost, Alexa App and Echos are under the same LAN (they are all connected under the same router or the first 3 segments of IP address are the same).
Is it possible for the iHost Matter Bridge to join multiple matter networks?
I just got a Sonoff Zigbee Dongle E and put matter-over-thread firmware on it, mostly as per these instructions:
Those instructions are about how to use the dongle E for both Zigbee and Thread/Matter but I have a dongle P for Zigbee already so just put Thread/Matter on the E and plugged it into a Raspberry Pi 4 running Home Assistant and connected the Home Assistant to the iHost using thread/matter. This all works although the device names are all the device IDs rather than the friendly names, which is a pain.
It was however previously paired to Alexa and I couldn’t see how to generate a new pairing code for the Home Assistant so I deleted the Alexa pairing and started from fresh. I thought devices could be added to 5 networks but I just couldn’t see how to do it? The page looks like it should be possible and the instructions say to get a new code but I could not see how?
The Matter Bridge now says it has been added to 2 matter supported platform, which is odd as I deleted the Echo-Dot network. The First is called ‘Apple Keychain’ (I have no Apple Home stuff and did this from a windows PC). I do have homebridge to an iPad and IPhone on the iHost…maybe it smelt the Apple stuff… The second paired matter network is unnamed. I assume that is the Home Assistant network.
Been into Home Assistant and the devices are there so it is definitely one of the two.
Does the thread/matter platform not allow you to share ‘friendly names’? Going through all of them and renaming them is going to be a bit of a pain. The same was true of the Echo-Dot pairing, which I’ve now deleted.
If I go the iHost>matter-bridge>device list they all have sensible names still. It is only on the Echo Dot and Home Assistant I get device IDs.
Hello! To connect to other Matter platforms from Alexa you need to select your iHost hub in the Alexa app, tap “Other Assistants and Apps” and then “Add another”, this will generate a new Matter QR Code to use in Home Assistant.
For now Home Assistant cannot generate pairing codes to connect to other platforms, I think this is something they are working on…
I think this is something the eWelink Devs should work on, I have an Aqara Hub that also works as a Matter Hub and it can export their friendly names without any issues, so its possible from the Matter side
Quick question, do we have any roadmap or news regarding new types of devices being added to the Matter Bridge? I have a 5 channel plug which is not showing as a compatible device in iHost (I believe the current max for iHost is 4 channels), are there any plans to add support to it?
This is the PowerStrip that I have connected via Zigbee2Cube. (AliExpress link: https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005005530724136.html)
It’s listed under “More devices”
They do, indeed, but it looks like mission impossible so far. Perhaps this is an affliction of Matter and they cannot do anything about it themselves. We shall live and see. Work and tests are ongoing.
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