In short: Samsung SmartThings and IKEA announced that 25 new IKEA Matter-over-Thread devices can now connect directly to the SmartThings hub without needing IKEA’s own DIRIGERA hub, and smart bulbs starting at $5.99 undercut the competition. The integration leverages Thread border routers embedded in Samsung TVs, soundbars and devices beyond 2022, meaning millions of Samsung hardware owners unwittingly have the infrastructure for Matter devices as the smart home market reaches 800 million Matter-enabled devices and a projected market size of $530 billion by the end of the year.
Samsung SmartThings and IKEA announced Monday that 25 new IKEA smart home devices can now connect directly to the SmartThings hub using Matter Over Thread, eliminating the need for IKEA’s own DIRIGERA hub as an intermediary. Change sounds incremental. not. That means a $6 IKEA smart bulb can now connect to the same system that controls a Samsung TV, refrigerator, and washing machine that connects locally without relying on the cloud via a protocol that works with Apple HomeKit, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa. The smart home promised interoperability within ten years. This is what it looks like when the promise starts working at a price point that doesn’t require justification.
The 25 devices cover IKEA’s new Matter-over-Thread line: KAJPLATS smart light bulbs in 11 options starting at $5.99, GRILLPLATS smart plugs, sliding wheel remotes, smart buttons, MYGGSPRAY motion sensor for $9.99, MYGGBETT door and $9K water detection sensor. At $9.99, the ALPSTUGA air quality sensor at $29.99 measures CO2 and PM2.5 at about a quarter of the price of competitors. Bulbs, sockets and remotes connect directly to the SmartThings hub via Matter. The sensors require a hub with IKEA’s DIRIGERA or a third-party alternative. Blind and shade control will be added later this year.
Why is this technically important?
Previous integration required both an IKEA DIRIGERA hub and a SmartThings hub, with DIRIGERA acting as a Matter bridge between IKEA’s Zigbee devices and the SmartThings ecosystem. The new devices use Thread over Matter, a low-power IPv6 networking protocol that allows devices to communicate directly with any Matter-compatible controller. Samsung and IKEA have performed several rounds of testing to ensure the stability of the connection and created a special user experience in the SmartThings app to control the IKEA device.
The technical significance is in the protocol stack. Matter is the application layer that defines how devices describe themselves, accept commands, and report state. Thread is a network layer that creates a self-healing network where devices act as routers for each other. SmartThings was the first platform to adopt Thread 1.4, which enables cross-brand network connectivity: a SmartThings hub can connect to an existing Thread network from another ecosystem or allow a third-party border router to connect to itself. The result is that all Thread border routers in the home, regardless of manufacturer, act as a single unified network.
It was Samsung quietly builds Thread border routers to an expanding range of hardware. Every Samsung smart TV from 2022 has one, including QLED, Neo QLED, OLED and Lifestyle models. So are Samsung soundbars, refrigerators and washing machines. Millions of Samsung TV owners have the infrastructure for Matter-over-Thread devices in their homes without having to buy anything specifically for smart home use. IKEA’s $6 bulbs give these TV owners something inexpensive enough to try.
IKEA pricing as a strategy
IKEA’s prices are the most effective element of the ad. At $5.99, the KAJPLATS smart bulb undercuts the Philips Hue Essential by $15, the Nanoleaf Essentials by $12, and the Agara T2 by half or more at $15. The $29.99 ALPSTUGA air quality sensor competes with the Awair and IQAir devices, which cost more than $100. IKEA has stated that it aims to make smart home technology “easy to use, easy to understand and accessible to many”, and the prices reflect this ambition with unusual directness.
The strategy is a comprehensive renewal. IKEA announced 21 new Matter-compatible products in November 2025 and has committed to making Matter and Thread the default smart home protocols for the future. DIRIGERA will transition from a central Zigbee controller to a Matter bridge in September 2024 to a full Matter controller capable of powering devices from other manufacturers in mid-2025. IKEA isn’t just adding support for Matter. Rebuilds the entire smart home lineup around it.
Jaeyeon Jung, executive vice president of SmartThings at Samsung, explained the partnership clearly in terms of accessibility: “By connecting IKEA devices to SmartThings, even first-time smart home users can enjoy a familiar and easy connectivity experience without the financial burden.”
State of matter
Mater started in October 2022 significant enthusiasm and slow initial release. Early devices had reliability and installation issues that undermined the standard’s promise of seamless interoperability. After three and a half years, the standard has matured. More than 1,000 devices have been certified between Matter 1.0 and 1.2. Article 1.5, ratified in November 2025, added support for cameras, soil moisture sensors and power management. The Connectivity Standards Alliance projects 800 million Matter-compatible devices in use by the end of this year, which it calls the fastest adoption of any home technology standard in history.
The practical effect is that a Matter-certified device now works in the Apple, Google, Amazon and Samsung ecosystems simultaneously without additional configuration. Competition across platforms has shifted from device compatibility, which Matter makes universal, to software quality, AI integration, and user experience. With 430 million users as of January and on track to surpass 500 million, 4,700 connected device types and 390 partners by the end of the year, SmartThings is positioned as the platform with the broadest hardware integration, given Samsung’s deployment of SmartThings to TVs, home appliances and wearables.
Apple is expected to make its own significant push into the smart home this year with smart glasses that function as touchscreen hubs, HomeKit cameras, and environment input devices. Google Home and Amazon Alexa continue to expand their Matter support. Convergence means that users are increasingly choosing platforms for their software and AI capabilities, rather than the devices they can control, as Matter ensures that all platforms can control the same hardware.
What it means for the market
The smart home market is estimated to be worth $127.8 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow 27% annually to reach $537 billion by 2030. A major barrier to adoption has been fragmentation: incompatible protocols, multiple hubs, and the constant risk that a device bought today won’t work with a system bought tomorrow. The issue resolves the protocol issue. IKEA solves the price problem. Samsung solves the infrastructure problem by embedding Thread border routers in products that people buy for reasons that have nothing to do with smart home automation.
The combination of a $6 smart bulb, a universal protocol, and a TV that already includes the networking hardware to support it is closer to mass-market smart home adoption than anything the industry has produced in the decade it’s spent talking about it. Technology is no longer a limitation. The limitation makes it cheap enough and simple enough that the average household doesn’t need to understand what Matter, Thread, or a border router is to take advantage of them. IKEA and Samsung between them seem to have solved both problems at once.
