Newsletter
This week at CES 2023, we’ve been seeing a lot of new smart home products that also work with Matter. Which shouldn’t be a surprise, since it is now available. And jumping on that news is SwitchBot, who has just introduced their new Matter Hub. Though, it does a bit more than just add support for Matter.
It’s officially called the SwitchBot Hub 2, and it has Matter support. So it’s going to work with Google Home/Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple’s HomeKit/Siri and more. With the SwitchBot Hub 2 supporting Matter, that means that all of its Bluetooth connected devices, are not compatible with Matter. And can be controlled with Hey Google, Hey Alexa, or Hey Siri.
The SwitchBot Hub 2 does more than just add Matter support
If Matter wasn’t enough to get you to want this hub, well, here’s a few more features. It also comes with an infrared interface, so you can make things like your older TV or your remote-controlled air conditioner, smart now. It also has an LED display on the hub that can show you the temperature and humidity levels in your home. Which you can also have read out to you, if you are across the room, or even in another room.
This hub also has two scene buttons on the front. This can be customized through the SwitchBot app, but basically, they can be programmed to trigger a custom setup or any other actions for your smart home products. It can also be used as a single shortcut for a device you’ve got connected.
There’s also the SwitchBot Hub Mini. It offers basically the same features as the Hub 2, but without the temperature and Matter support. Right now, SwitchBot has not mentioned if they will be adding Matter support to the Hub Mini or not. But it will likely be added in one way or another. Whether that’s through a software update, or through a new version (due to hardware limitations).