Ikea’s New Lineup of Smart Home Gear Is Quietly Changing the Game | WIRED

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I've always been an Ikea fan. I lived in nine different apartments over 15 years before moving into my home, and every single one of those places had an abundance of Ikea furnishings. But the latest thing from Ikea that's been catching my eye isn't the new bold blue shade for the Billy bookcase, but the brand's expanded and upgraded smart home gear.

Ikea announced last year that its new lineup of smart home gadgets would be entirely Matter-compatible. That's a big deal, as the open source interoperability standard has Amazon, Apple, and Google signed up, meaning these devices will play well with Alexa, Siri, and Google's nameless voice assistant. While some of this gear has been available for a little while, much of the lineup—like the newest light bulbs and smart plugs—is new. These are now some of the most affordable smart home gadgets available, and from my experience, they also some of the best when it comes to ease of setup and price.

Ikea is still using its Dirigera Hub ($110) that launched a few years ago, so if you're already an Ikea smart home user, you won't need a new hub to start using these gadgets. But new users should pick one up if they don't have a Thread-enabled, Matter-compatible smart home hub in their home.

Here's what gear I've tried from Ikea's new smart home collection, and how it went.

The Kajplats Bulb

Photograph: Nena Farrell

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Ikea

Kajplats Smart Light Bulb

$13 Ikea (E26, 1100 Lumen)

$6 Ikea (E26, 450 lumen)

One of Ikea's key new products, just launched this April, is a new light bulb. Smart light bulbs are one of the most-used items in my home, and this is one of the most accessible and useful smart home products out there.

The Kajplats smart bulb has 11 variations, ranging from your classic E26 standard bulb to Edison-style dimmable bulbs. The bulbs are well-priced, ranging from just $6 for a 450 lumen white-only bulb for accent lights up to $13 for the 1,100 lumen color bulb. That puts it a little cheaper than my favored Cync smart bulb, but you'll miss out on extras like music sync that more expensive bulbs offer but which I don't find myself using very often.

The Kajplats bulb was easy to set up around my house, and because I'm an iPhone user, it also used Matter to sync to my Apple Home app as well as my Ikea app. I wish these came in more packs of bulbs rather than having to always buy them a la carte, but it's a solid bulb for a good price. Just check the lumens before you check out to make sure you're not accidentally buying the cheap, dim one when you need something bright enough to fill a room.

While you can't get these bulbs in bundles together, you can get a bulb bundled with Ikea's new smart home remote control, the Bilresa, for $10.

The Bilresa Remote

Photograph: Nena Farrell

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Ikea

Bilresa Remote Control

$6 Ikea (Dual Button)

$10 Ikea (Scroll Wheel)

$15 Ikea (Dual Button, Set of Three)

The Bilresa smart remote is downright adorable. It allows you to connect to Ikea's range of smart lights, plugs, speakers, and more so you can quickly control it without saying a word. It's almost like a smart switch, since you can use the included mounting plate and sticky adhesive to mount it in your home, but there's also a magnet backing that I used to attach it right to the fridge.

It comes in three colors, though you can only buy the white color individually; to get the tomatoey red and soft green, you'll have to buy the three-pack set. There's also the choice of spending a little more to get one with a wheel—ideal for adjusting brightness on a smart light, for example—or just buttons. The button-only models are $6 individually and $15 for a three-pack, making it a really cheap investment for such a handy little device. These do need AAA batteries, however, which aren't included. I tested with Ikea's Ladda batteries ($9 for four).

So far, my red remote (chosen to match my living room!) is doing a good job quickly controlling my living room lights. It was quick to connect in the app and easy to pop open the front to insert the batteries with a flathead screwdriver (or, perhaps, the butter knife I had nearby). The app made it easy to assign it to a room, and you can manage up to three groups of products with it. This little remote was a nice break for me as a reviewer who's constantly changing her lights and setting things up for my Amazon smart speaker over and over again—as there's just one button to click, these would also be ideal attached to a bedside table to switch off your lights without having to rise.

The Myggspray Motion Sensor

Photograph: Nena Farrell

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Ikea

Myggspray

$8 Ikea

There are a few new sensors that launched