Belkin Wemo’s new Smart Dimmer Switch with Thread is exclusively for Apple’s HomeKit - The Verge

Wemo announces a new Smart Dimmer with Thread for Apple’s HomeKit smart home platform. The smart switch works with or without neutral wiring and cost $60.

Wemo, the smart home arm of Belkin, announced an updated version of its in-wall dimmer switch this week. The new Wemo Smart Dimmer with Thread ($59.99) is a wired smart switch that lets you dim and turn lights on and off remotely. It works exclusively with Apple’s HomeKit platform over Thread or Bluetooth and is available now from Belkin’s web store (and coming soon to Amazon).

This HomeKit focus follows a recent trend for the company, whose last few products — the Wemo Stage Scene Controller, smart plug, and video doorbell — only work with Apple’s smart home platform. This means the new switch will use the Apple Home app exclusively (and not the Wemo app), and will work with Siri for voice control.

Despite using Thread, the main wireless protocol for Matter, and having publicly announced it would launch new Matter-ready devices this summer, Wemo says the Smart Dimmer won’t be upgraded to support the upcoming smart home standard.

“As of right now, the Dimmer with Thread will not be upgradable to Matter via firmware update when the new standard launches later this year,” Cassie Pineda, a spokesperson for Belkin, told The Verge in an email. “When Matter launches later this year, we will bring to market new switches / dimmers that support Matter over Thread.”

While it seems redundant to release two almost identical versions of the same product in the same year, Pineda said the reasoning is that the dimmer launching today supports HomeKit over Thread, “providing consumers with a more responsive, reliable, and secure smart home experience without the hassle of third-party apps,” she said. Matter’s delay (it was originally scheduled to launch this summer), may have also contributed to this split ecosystem.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/3/23290273/wemo-smart-dimmer-switch-thread-apple-homekit-price-specs


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