• James R Kirk@startrek.website
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    2 days ago

    I am just getting started on this journey but zigbee seems great and I like that it works fine even if the wifi goes down. I’m not sure what the drawbacks are or the benefits of Matter.

    • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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      2 days ago

      matter and thread are different things fyi…

      thread uses the same wireless communication as zigbee (zigbee has other stuff on top of it), so is a low power wireless protocol

      matter is the data format that devices use to communicate on top of an IP-based network like wifi or thread. it’s meant to standardise all these competing “works with google” “works with alexa” “homekit compatible”: if it works with matter, it should work with any coordinator that has matter compatibility (which all the big ones do these days)

      thread will work great if the wifi is down - same as zigbee!

      matter also (afaik) forces local devices: your coordinator (a homepod, alexa, etc) talks directly to the device without going through the internet. again, same as zigbee

      • James R Kirk@startrek.website
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        2 days ago

        Thanks for the explainer, that last point is really great actually and I’m surprised that Amazon/Google etc are pushing for Matter if the data isn’t sent to the internet.

        • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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          2 days ago

          well your coordinator gets to end whatever it likes wherever it likes but the devices themselves communicate over your internal network so everything should be much snappier