Ikea
Ikea’s smart home system finally supports scene creation
Software update brings a useful new feature to Ikea's cut-price smart home platform
Software update brings a useful new feature to Ikea's cut-price smart home platform
Ikea has been in the smart home business for several years now, and has slowly expanded its offering to include lights, speakers made by Sonos, and motorized window blinds.
But, while the Swedish furniture store has always had great value in its favor, its smart home products have lacked the features of other systems, like Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple HomeKit.
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Now, Ikea is looking to address that with a software update adding scene creation. In smart home speak, a scene is a user-programmed setting where, with one tap of an app or press of a button (or a voice command), multiple devices change to a certain state.
For example a 'movie night' scene could dim the ceiling lights and switch on a light strip behind the television. A 'leaving' or 'goodnight' scene could turn off every light in a home, turn down the thermostat, and close motorized window blinds.
First reported by The Verge, the new scene setting for Ikea's Home Smart system will come to owners of the Tradfri Gateway with firmware version 1.12.31. With the update installed, the phone app can be used to create scenes that control Ikea's lights, plus its Sonos-compatible Symfonisk speakers, and new Fyrtur motorized window blinds.
Ikea smart home system gains scene creationIkea
This update also looks to pave the way for a new device from Ikea called the Tradfri shortcut button. Appearing on some of Ikea's European websites, but with no stock available yet, the button is priced at €10 and can be configured to activate a scene when pressed.
That way, you could turn up the lights and open the window blinds with the press of a button next to your bed each morning, or have a button by the front door configured to switch everything off when you leave.
Hopefully this is a sign of more smart home progress to come from Ikea, and we look forward to seeing new products and features from the furniture store soon.
IKEA 303.561.69 Trådfri Wireless Control Outlet
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