Eve Systems has been offering the migration of the first HomeKit devices to the new smarthome standard Matter for a few days now via an Early Access Program offered. Actually, everything should remain the same after the update. However, this is not quite the case.
If you look at Eve Energy, Eve Motion or Eve Door & Window after the migration to Matter, everything seems the same at first. At least, after you’ve shot down the Eve app once and reopened it. Because then the Eve Energy also shows the power consumption again.
But while the Eve app continues to display many features, other HomeKit apps can no longer access them. Thus, not only insights, but also triggers and conditions for automations are eliminated.
Now, before we explain the differences between the HomeKit and Matter devices, we would like to point out that the Matter migration of Eve is a beta and not the final version. As a pure HomeKit user, you should currently forgo the upgrade.
Eve Energy
If you look at the technical details in HomeDevices, you will immediately notice that there are significantly fewer services and characteristics in the Eve Energy after the migration to Matter. Whereas data on energy consumption and the properties of Thread were displayed before, only the switch for the Plug and information on the firmware are still there after the migration.
Of course, this also affects the triggers and conditions for automations. For example, while the current power consumption was previously available in automations, this is no longer available after the migration to Matter. This applies to numerous triggers and conditions.
Eve Motion
The first thing you notice about the Eve Motion is that the motion sensor becomes a presence sensor. However, only the terminology changes. Both sensors distinguish between two states: motion or presence detected or not.
Things get interesting again when you look at the technical details. Here, too, numerous custom services and characteristics have been lost.
This, of course, affects the automations again, and especially the conditions. At this point, however, it should be mentioned that most of the characteristics that disappear after migration are likely to be uninteresting for many anyway.
Eve Door & Window
The Matter migration has the least impact on the Eve Door & Window. Not everything remains the same here either, but the changes are marginal. In the technical details, it is again noticeable that some custom services are omitted. Thread properties are affected. In return, a service has been added to the firmware here as well.
Thread network
However, the Eve app still has problems at the moment. In the view of the Thread network, the manufacturer also seems to fall back on the HomeKit characteristics, which are now no longer available. Thus, the own Matter devices are also missing in this view.
Identify devices
HomeKit devices can be identified via apps. This usually involves a light on the device flashing briefly after you press the button. This is especially helpful if you own a device multiple times and are no longer sure which device is which.
After the Matter migration, however, that will fall away. At least the button is currently without function in all HomeKit apps.
Complex automations are lost
Since the complete identity of the device is exchanged during the migration, the device must also be set up again. Eve Systems creates a small backup before the migration and tries to restore all settings, automations and scenes during the new setup.
That usually works out pretty well, too. However, for complex automations, such as when an automation has been converted to a shortcut, the manufacturer has no way to restore it. So the migration bears the risk that some automations will be lost.
Conclusion
Eve has launched the Matter as an Early Access Program and the Eve app must be installed via TestFlight. So this is a (public) beta. As a pure HomeKit user, there are more disadvantages than advantages after the migration. Therefore, we currently advise against migration.
Update December 16, 2022 11:11 a.m.: It appears that Eve Systems has already implemented the characteristics, but Apple is not yet using them from Matter devices.
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