SwitchBot Hub 2 Review: Matter Comes to SwitchBot
SwitchBot Hub 2
As a little box to add your nearby SwitchBot Bluetooth devices to Wi-Fi, control infrared appliances, and keep an eye on the temperature and humidity levels, the Hub 2 is a great improvement over the Hub Mini. Matter support is a great addition for Apple HomeKit users, though it’s a little buggy still at launch and not every SwitchBot device linked to your Hub 2 is supported. And you’ll need an Apple HomePod or Apple TV to act as a controller.
The SwitchBot Hub 2 builds on the successful Hub Mini’s essential feature of putting your Bluetooth-only SwitchBot devices onto Wi-Fi. Then it adds a thermometer, hygrometer, and light meter, and throws in Matter-support. While SwitchBot was previously compatible with both Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa, Matter integration now means it’ll work with Apple’s HomeKit. And not just for temperature and humidity readings, but for SwitchBot Curtains and Blinds, too.
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What Does the SwitchBot Hub 2 Do?
The SwitchBot Hub has always been an essential part of any SwitchBot system, bringing Wi-Fi and cloud connectivity to the full range of low-cost Bluetooth-only SwitchBot devices, such as the original SwitchBot Bot (button pusher) or the SwitchBot Curtain. While some level of automation is possible on these without a hub (opening and closing your curtains on a daily schedule, for instance), remote control of those devices outside of Bluetooth range of your smartphone required the addition of a Hub Mini. Instead of talking to your smartphone over Bluetooth, now they could talk to the Hub, which would in turn, expose the devices over Wi-Fi instead.
The Hub Mini and Hub 2 aren’t just Bluetooth to Wi-Fi gateways though; they both feature the ability to learn and control any infra-red remote devices, such as TVs and air conditioners.When I reviewed the SwitchBot Curtains and Hub Mini, I used it in my cinema to create a movie night scene, which closed the curtains, turned on the PC (via a SwitchBot Bot), as well as turning on the amplifier and projector via legacy infrared control.
The Hub 2 adds even more features, with two capacitive buttons, a thermometer, hygrometer, light meter, and a built-in digital display for the current temperature and humidity level. It can still learn and control infrared remote devices, and you can link two of your ready-made scenes to the on and off buttons on the device, such as a wake-up and bedtime routine.
Although the core feature of the Hub 2 remains that of connecting Bluetooth SwitchBot devices to your wider Internet of Things home network, the Hub 2 can now do that and expose its sensor readings using the new cross-compatible Matter protocol.
Box Contents and Setup
The Hub 2 comes in a simple package, consisting of the Hub 2 itself, a custom USB cable with integrated sensors, a 5V 2A plug adaptor, and a spare double-sided 3M piece of sticky tape.
As it’s a custom cable with integrated sensors, you’ll need to be careful. This isn’t just any old USB-C cable that can be easily replaced with another from your drawer.
Remove the back of the Hub 2 housing, bend the cable a little so it’ll sit flush with the surface, then insert. It feels quite rugged, but you should ensure it isn’t going to get snagged in a drawer or closet door.
You can either leave the back extended outwards as a kickstand for placing the Hub 2 on any surface or push it back flush and use the sticky tape to affix the Hub 2 to a wall.
If the bright lights of the LCD are likely to bother you at night, there are two options for you. Either it’s possible to enable automatic dimming using the ambient light sensor or have the on/off touch-sensitive buttons on the front of the Hub 2 turn on and off the screen itself. Automatic dimming worked fine for me, but I’d happily fall asleep under a laser show, so your experience may vary.
Setting up the Hub 2 is as simple as any SwitchBot product: power it on, and add a new device from the app. It’s automatically detected over Bluetooth, and you’ll be walked through the process of adding it to your home.
After that, you may start setting up Matter for use with HomeKit. You may require a firmware upgrade, and you’ll need to note down the device code and put the Hub 2 into pairing mode. Simply press both the on-screen on and off buttons simultaneously for about 15 seconds. Then jump over the Apple Home app to finish setup. You may also find that your Android phone automatically detects a new Matter accessory and prompts you to set it up, but Apple is a more manual affair.
I should note that Matter support for the Hub 2 is currently in Beta, and has been more than a little buggy during my month of testing.
What Exactly is “Matter” and Why Does It Matter?
Another year, another smart home protocol. One protocol to rule them, they say. One protocol to unify everything. Now, instead of five smart home protocols, we have six.
While this is a review mostly of the Hub 2, from Switchbot, and not of the Matter system, the two are inextricably linked, so we really can’t discuss one without the other.
Matter is an attempt to get all smart home manufacturers under the same roof, so that users can choose any system they want and still have a working set of devices. If you ditch Apple and go to the Google camp, your Matter smart home should still work. Of course, that seems like the absolute minimum we should expect from a product, but until now it wasn’t the case. I have plenty of devices that work with Google Home, but not Apple HomeKit. It’s a mess.
To some extent, Matter fixes that. Rather than having to search specifically for Google Home or Alexa or Siri support, you can just see if it’s Matter compatible. It if is, it’ll work with any of them.
You may still need device-specific apps for advanced features or setup (as is the case with the SwitchBot Curtains, for instance, which need to be calibrated elsewhere), but the majority of smart sensors or control features should be accessible through Matter. That means whether you use Google Home, Alexa, or Siri to control your home, you should have equal access to Matter-compatible devices.
Matter is high-level communications protocol which uses Bluetooth for initial provisioning. At that point, in theory, it’s hardware agnostic, other than to specify that device control should occur locally and not rely on a web connection or cloud server. That means your new Matter device may work over Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or even Thread (which is an evolution of Zigbee). The Matter certification doesn’t dictate how the device should connect to your home network; merely that’s it’s cross-compatible with any smart home assistant and control system, and can work locally.
Traditionally, Siri and Apple HomeKit has been the odd one out, due to strict licensing and protocol requirements. Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home were easier to deal with. A lot of smart home products had two versions: the HomeKit-compatible version, and everything else. Or they just forgot about Apple entirely. So most of this review focuses on exposing SwitchBot devices to Apple HomeKit, which was previously impossible.
Automation With The SwitchBot App
Seeing on-screen that your room is too humid or too cold is all well and good, but the real power of SwitchBot comes from automation. On the Scenes tab of the SwitchBot app, you create automatic scenes that will trigger given any number of conditions. The SwitchBot automation system is a lot more robust and flexible than the single conditions you have in IFTTT, but of course, with a more limited set of sensors and actions.
For instance, if you have a SwitchBot Bot (button pusher), or have an infra-red remote control system for your home dehumidifier, you could enable it to automatically turn on when the humidity reaches a set percentage, or turn off when it’s low enough.
If you’d rather keep your automations within the HomeKit app, that’s possible too, but with an even more limited set of sensors and actions, as not all SwitchBot devices will be exposed to HomeKit yet. You can use the humidity and temperature settings, and control any connected blinds or curtains that are linked to your Hub 2.
Do You Need to Buy New Versions of Everything That Work With Matter?
Thankfully, no—at least not for SwitchBot products. For SwitchBot products that work over Bluetooth, you’ll need the Hub 2 to bring them into the Matter ecosystem, but your devices will still work (at some point, but limited to Curtains and Blinds for now). For SwitchBot products that have Wi-Fi built-in, a firmware update is expected to enable Matter support directly, too. So while you may need to replace your hub, you don’t need to replace everything else.
You will however need something to act as a controller; this is a requirement that Apple has set. Your smartphone can’t do this because it won’t always be at home. Currently, you could use either an Apple TV or HomePod (Mini or regular-sized). Once you’ve added a suitable controller to your network, the Apple Home app will prompt you to update to the new architecture.
Can I Do Everything Through Matter?
Simple answer: no. Not everything the SwitchBot devices can do is exposed over Matter, so you’ll still need the SwitchBot app for certain things, such as programming new IR codes and scenes, or calibrating your curtains. In the case of SwitchBot Curtains, HomeKit can only open or close them to a set percentage, and know their current status. It can’t calibrate them.
Will Matter Fix Everything That’s Wrong With Your Smart Home?
Not at all. Matter solves a small piece of the puzzle, but plenty of issues for end users remain. For instance, even though your Apple HomePod is now a Matter controller, and your HomeKit has a smart bulb on it that you bought as Homekit-compatible (but prior to the invention of Matter), that doesn’t mean other Matter controllers in your home will be able to control that bulb. Devices are not shared between controllers. Every device you want to control across the Matter protocol will need to be Matter-compatible and will need to be individually set up on their respective systems.
SwitchBot is a bit of an exception. Since most of their devices only ever used Bluetooth, they always needed a Hub to act as a gateway. In theory, all the older SwitchBot devices will work with Matter once you have a new Hub 2 gateway (though again, at the time of writing, only Curtains and Blinds are supported).
Philips Hue is also expected to issue a firmware upgrade to the Hue Hub, making all the existing Zigbee-based Hue bulbs compatible with Matter. But that’s not really an upgrade, since they were already one of the few companies that supported every major platform.
Should You Buy the SwitchBot Hub 2?
With the added temperature and humidity sensor while retaining the ability to control a dwindling number of infrared devices, the Hub 2 is a great way to take advantage of SwitchBot’s low-power Bluetooth sensors and devices throughout your home.
I’ll admit, I haven’t always been a fan of Bluetooth IoT devices and their inherent limitations of requiring a smartphone, but SwitchBot solves my concerns and brings new features. There are certainly benefits to using Bluetooth, like having hundreds of Bluetooth switches and sensors available over a single Hub 2 IP address. The sheer number of Wi-Fi-connected devices has been known to overwhelm some routers.
The fact that SwitchBot is committed to Matter support is an added bonus at this point. For the end user, the net effect is that your SwitchBot bits will now be compatible with Apple HomeKit, which they weren’t prior—but only if you have an Apple HomePod or Apple TV to act as a controller. Other than that, Matter is a bit inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. If you only used Alexa or Google Home, it doesn’t really matter to you.
As a little box to unify your nearby SwitchBot devices and keep an eye on the temperature and humidity levels, the Hub 2 is great.
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