Swedish flatpack furniture giant Ikea has introduced a smart-home smart app and hub that it says will eventually be Matter compliant.

The launch of the app and Dirigera hub should enable a rich and intuitive experience, including features to personalise and enhance everyday moments in the home.

Imagine waking up in a bedroom with clean air, blinds slowly going up while the lamps gradually brighten the room, all accompanied by favourite music and the smell of fresh coffee being brewed. This moment can be enabled by creating a scene in the Ikea Home app. Scenes allow different smart devices to be steered individually or in groups to create automated patterns for different activities throughout the day.

The Dirigera hub allows the user to add a range of smart products, such as sound, lighting, air purification and blinds to their smart home, in a simple and intuitive way. The hub will eventually be compatible with the Matter smart home connectivity standard.

“As contributors to the development of Matter, we at Ikea are proud to be a part of enabling various smart products to interact with each other and provide more smart home opportunities for the many people worldwide,” said Rebecca Töreman, business leader at Ikea. “We will work towards Matter certification step-by-step, and the first update is expected in the next couple of months. We are just getting started.”

She said Dirigera and the app were the heart of a new smart home experience from Ikea. Together, she said, they made it possible to merge digital technology with life at home in a simple and accessible way.

“With better and more simple integrations of technology into everyday life, we have the potential to positively affect moments and activities in the home, like creating a better wake-up routine or helping you get a good night’s rest,” she said.

The app was developed based on decades of life-at-home expertise. In addition, hundreds of annual home visits have been complemented by multiple user research studies. Most users observed in their homes perceived smart products as complicated, and many felt a smart home was something only available for the few. The easy-to-use smart home experience that Ikea offers, aims to lower the threshold for people to set up and use a smart home.

“At Ikea, we think the smart home should be for everyone,” said Töreman. “With the new Ikea Home smart app, one focus has been to create an inclusive experience, built with our customers daily life and challenges in mind. We have learnt how people use their smart homes and what works and doesn’t. Based on that, we have created a simple and intuitive digital experience that enables an even smarter home for as many people as possible.”