It’s not just Billy bookcases and meatballs you can pick up at IKEA — the Swedish home furnishings retailer also has a growing line of own-brand electronics products. And its next launch will be very enticing for those with an Apple HomeKit smart home set up, if the latest leaks are anything to go by.
As spotted by Zatz Not Funny, IKEA is planning to release two new smart home sensors, as filed with the Federal Communications (FCC) department in June.
The first is the ‘Parasoll Open / Close’ sensor, which monitors opening and closing actions on a device, such as doors and windows, communicating wirelessly with smart home controllers and making use of a magnetic fob. Going purely by the name, it seems intended perhaps for use with a patio or garden parasol’s open and close mechanism.
The second product, the Vallhorn Motion sensor, is, as its name suggests, a motion sensor that could presumably be paired with other smart home items to trigger actions based on movement or proximity.
At this point, no release or pricing information has been revealed.
HomeKit future
Though the devices themselves make use of the Zigbee smart home standard — which itself is not compatible with Apple’s HomeKit, both look set to require a connection to IKEA’s own Dirigera or Tradfi smart home hubs, which are HomeKit compatible, bridging the gap between the two standards.
It’s a bit of a faff, admittedly, and speaks to the fractured nature of Apple HomeKit support when it comes to third-party systems. But this might soon be a thing of the past — the Matter smart home standard, set to unify all major smart home systems, is compatible with HomeKit and will increasingly become the de facto standard for all manufacturers to support.
In the meantime, there remains a healthy, if small, HomeKit ecosystem to invest in. Check out our top picks for HomeKit gear at the links below:
