Apple now lets you add Matter devices to Apple Home without a hub

With this week’s release of iOS 18, adding smart home devices to Apple Home just got a lot easier. The update brings direct local control of Matter devices to newer iPhones, meaning all you need to set up and control them is an iPhone that can run iOS 18 — no hub or border router required. This is good news for anyone interested in dabbling in smart home gadgets who isn’t ready to go all in.

Matter is a new standard designed to simplify the smart home. Compatible devices work over Wi-Fi or Thread, a protocol specifically designed for IoT gadgets. With iOS 18, you can now add any Wi-Fi device to Apple Home with just an iPhone. For Thread devices, you’ll need an iPhone with a Thread radio (iPhone 15 Pro or newer).

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a Home hub — the Apple Home experience will be better with one. Adding a hub that can act as a Matter controller and Thread border router will let you do things like trigger a light with a motion sensor, adjust your thermostat as part of a Good Night automation, or remotely lock your door when you’re not home.

But with this change, you’ll at least be able to set up a Matter lightbulb or smart plug without the sudden and terrible realization that you need another piece of hardware to make it work. Then, down the road, you can decide if you want to do more with automation and pick up a HomePod (second-gen), HomePod Mini, or Apple TV 4K to give you more features.

Interestingly, this is how Apple’s HomeKit smart home platform used to work; you could connect any device to the Home app using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and control it from your iPhone as long as you were in the house. But since Matter came along, you’ve had to have a Home hub to add Matter devices. iOS 18 brings Matter and HomeKit much closer to feature parity.

This is all part of Apple’s continuing move away from HomeKit toward fully utilizing Matter and Thread for Apple Home. Other moves include adding features like HomeKit Adaptive Lighting and Home Key to Matter, but the big one we’re still waiting on is HomeKit Secure Video.

While direct local control of Matter devices on iOS 18 will work with any Matter-over-Wi-Fi device using any compatible iPhone, it’s still a bit complicated for Thread devices. Shocking, I know.

First, you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or newer — the iPhones with Thread radios. (No word on if the Thread radios in iPads or Macs will also work.) Then, you’ll need a Thread device compatible with the iOS 18 feature.

Initially, this applies only to mains-powered devices — battery-powered accessories such as locks and sensors will “require a firmware update from the manufacturer to be compatible with iOS 18,” according to an Apple support page.

Eve Systems, a smart home company that relies primarily on Thread for its devices, announced compatibility for its mains-powered hardware this week.

It launched the long-awaited Matter version of its hardwired Thread-powered Eve Light Switch, revealing that it and its Eve Energy plug, Eve Energy Outdoor (EU only), and Eve Energy Outlet will all work with the new iOS 18 capability. Eve says these devices can talk directly to the Thread radio in compatible iPhones, be added to Apple Home, and be controlled by the app without any additional hubs.

How quickly we’ll see support for battery-powered Thread devices remains to be seen, as it’s up to each manufacturer to add the new functionality and roll out a firmware update. Eve says it plans to add support to more devices, including presumably battery-powered ones, in 2025.

Overall, this move brings Matter closer to its main promise of being able to “buy a device, plug it in, and it will just work with your smart home” — something it has failed to fulfill so far. With Thread radios in the newest Pixel phones and support for Thread networks in Android 15, this direct control capability should come to other smart home platforms soon.