The Dutch company Athom already announced the new all-rounder Homey Pro (Early 2023) at the end of last year. In the meantime, the Universal Hub has been officially launched.

Smarthome devices speak a wide variety of languages: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Thread, Zigbee or Z-Wave, to name a few. Depending on the radio standard and manufacturer, corresponding hubs are required. Aqara, Bosch, IKEA, Philips Hue: each manufacturer has its own hub.

Homey Pro product packaging

That the number of hubs doesn’t get out of hand and yet you don’t have to do without devices from different manufacturers – that’s what Athom wants to ensure with the new Homey Pro. The universal hub is said to be able to connect over 50,000 devices from over 1,000 manufacturers.

Numerous radio standards are supported

For this purpose, Athom has given the new Homey Pro Wi-Fi 2.4GHz and 5 GHz, Z-Wave Plus, Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0, Zigbee 3.0, 433 MHz and infrared. In addition, Thread is to be supported via a software update in the third quarter. Currently, an external Thread border router is still required for this.

The connected devices should be able to be controlled locally and the automations via Advanced Flows should offer particularly many possibilities. In addition, Homey Insights provides historical data and Homey Energy shows real-time energy consumption.

Apps offer many integrations

Numerous integrations can be easily installed via apps. Whether you want to integrate devices from Aqara, Philips Hue, IKEA TRÅDFRI or even your Tesla into your smarthome.

You can also (experimentally) control devices that you have connected to your Homey Pro via HomeKit using the HomeKitty app. As we understand it, Matter devices can be connected to the hub, but the hub cannot be connected to other smarthome platforms with all the connected devices through Matter.

If the new Homey Pro really eliminates the need for hubs from other manufacturers and establishes itself as the sole universal hub, then you can overlook the rather expensive purchase price of 399€. We will test the device extensively and share our experiences with you in the next few weeks. Homey Pro is available in the manufacturer’s own online store and already listed on Amazon.