Z-Wave and Matter: How to close the gap and use them together in your smart home

Matter may have had a start of potholes, but the standard of the smart house seems to play a more important role in the world of the smart house in 2025 and beyond.

However, while intelligent house platforms such as Alexa and Apple Homekit of Amazon have fed the expansion of the smart home in recent years, with a little help from the tastes of smartthings along the way, the idea of ​​the smart home is, In fact, it is, in fact, nothing new.

Z-Wave, presented for the first time in 1999, has been connecting intelligent starting devices before people even started using the phrase “Home Smart Home”. Think of devices such as wireless garage door openers, light switches, movement sensors and much more. Read our Z guide Z to deepen.

The tastes of Homey, Home Assistant, Hubitat and Smartthings work with Z-Wave and there is, therefore, that many people have accumulated collections of Z-Wave devices that now cannot be integrated into their matter of smart homes … or do you Can they?

Matter problems and Z waves

Although Z-Wave is not a native part of the standard of matter, there are still ways to integrate its Z-Wave devices in your smart home.

This explanatory will guide it through the process, which will allow you to create a truly interconnected home.

But before doing that, it is key to understand exactly what is happening in the background.

The challenges are found in the fundamental differences between matter and the Z wave.

Matter is a only An application layer: think about it as a set of communication rules (protocols). Define how intelligent domestic devices communicate and understand the commands of others. It is based on IP and uses family network technologies such as Wi-Fi, Thread and Ethernet.

Z-wave, on the other hand, is a complete protocol that covers the physical layer to the application layer, uses its own mesh networks, not IP.

It is the same story (ISH) for Zigbee; An alternative/rival for a long time to Z-Wave. However, Zigbee is part of the alliance of connectivity standards (which was actually called Zigbee Alliance until a couple of years ago) and is much more friendly to matter.

Zigbee, such as Z-Wave, is not based on IP, but there are a lot of bridges of available links / doors, of the tastes of Philips Hue, Aqara, Switchbot and Ikea, which allow Zigbee devices to work, bridges, within a matter system.

For example, add a AQARA SMART start center to a matter controller and you can use any of its Zigbee Aqara ‘Child’ devices connected: think of sensors, lights, locks and more, within a matter system.

There is no such bridge or gateway, however, to do the same with the Z-Wave devices, although we have hope, more about that below.

Using an intelligent domestic center

So what do you need to do now to close the gap before a real bridge appears, ER, the bridge the gap?

Well, first, you will need a Smart Home center or controller compatible with matter. This could be an intelligent speaker, a dedicated smart domestic center or even an intelligent refrigerator. No, I’m not joking: see our guide to the best subject controllers here.

A matter controller, as the name implies, is the central command center for its matter network. Most likely, I have one.

And most likely, if you have a lot of Z-Wave devices that feed your smart home, which you have one that is also a Z wave center.

The tastes of the Samsung and Aetect Smartthings, Homey Pro and Hubitat Elevation centers are examples of intelligent domestic centers that are subject controllers and Z wave centers. Devils, all throw Zigbee into the mixture also, together with a wide variety of standards /protocols.

These centers really do not care how their intelligent domestic device has matched, and they really don’t care how they communicate with them. While they can, they will.

That means that, for example, you can add a matter device to a smartthings center and then create routines and automation that also include Z-Wave devices. Therefore, it could have a Z Movement sensor of the fibaro torn on a Matter Smart Light fibaro tastes, such as Govee Light M1 LED light, and the temperature rises in a thermostat enabled for matter.

This would not be a direct communication of local matter to the Z wave intelligent.

And for now, that is as good as it seems. But, as mentioned, there is hope …

A dedicated matter and a z-wave bridge

Although the previous solution is currently the most effective way to integrate Z-Wave in the matter, the intelligent home panorama is dynamic and the people behind Z-Wave want to get involved in the matter.

“We are in conversations with CSA,” said Avi Rosenthal, president of the Z-Wave Alliance Board, recently The atmosphere In CES 2025.

“Today we have many Z wave members who build bond doors, controllers and centers, with multiple radios on them and multiple bridges,” he explained.

“There is no technical reason why a Z-Wave device cannot be controlled or controlled a matter device, a thread device, a Wi-Fi device or a Bluetooth device. It is simply an evolution of software development to allow that to happen. ”

That evolution of the software is already happening … although slowly.

Silicon Labs, which has “possessed” Z-Wave since 2018, launched the Software Unify (SDK) development kit a couple of years ago, which “provides an example of a matter bridge code to allow Z- Wave are connected to the matter ecosystem.

They also have the Unify Matter bridge, built on the UNIFY SDK, and have shown centers in the last two CES exhibitions that show how this technology could work.

So, while a couple of years have passed since we have seen a real update on the front of the Z-Wave bridge, it is possible.

And if something is possible in technology, and there is a demand large enough, it usually happens.

But for now, to obtain your subject and will singing and dancing together, the tastes of Homey and Smartthings are your best option.

It is also worth taking a look at Hubitat and assistant of origin, especially if he is not afraid of a little touch -up, and knows his Yaml from his red node.