I honestly can’t believe we are still talking about this in 2025. I recently decided to fully commit to the Matter ecosystem and bought IKEA BILRESA Matter buttons for my entire home, expecting them to work seamlessly with my Google Home setup.
To my absolute frustration, I found out that Google Home still doesn't support "Generic Switch" or button events over Matter, even though the protocol has been out for years.
Why is this still an issue?
It’s embarrassing that a tech giant like Google is lagging so far behind. Here is the reality:
The Competition: Apple HomeKit has had full support for Matter buttons since day one. Everything works there.
The Hardware is Ready: The IKEA buttons are great, affordable, and use the official Matter standard, can be connected directly to Google Streamer for example.
The Software is Missing: Google recognizes the device is there, but you can’t actually do anything with the button presses. They just sit there as "unsupported" icons.
What is Google waiting for?
Matter was supposed to end the "ecosystem wars," but Google’s half-baked implementation is making it useless for anyone who wants physical controls. Relying solely on voice commands or an app isn't a "smart home"—sometimes you just need a physical button on the wall.
Does anyone have any news on when Google plans to fix this? Or is it time to finally give up and migrate everything to Home Assistant or HomeKit? It’s a shame because I actually like the Google Nest hardware, but this software neglect is becoming a dealbreaker.
