Matter Hub Controller Information (From My Phone Call with Google)

[Sir_Rob]

This is what the Google Nest Employee told me on the phone today (some of these might be true?):

1. There can only be one google Matter controller connected in your house or the Matter network will get confused (cannot have multiple speakers or displays)
2. Matter hub controllers must operate on the 2.4 GHz network even though they have 5 GHz radios
3. Matter does not work well with access points
4. If you want to replace hub controllers (I was switching from a Nest speaker to a Nest display to see if that helped my issues) you have to connect the new hub controller to the original network, frequency, and even access point or it will get confused.
5. If any of your devices show offline, the only way to get them to work is to reset them, recommission them, and set up automations all over again.

I don't understand how any of these can actually be true.  Did Google really make it so that you should not buy more than one of their products?  Their network equipment is not smart enough to operate over a simple home network that uses both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz?  You are out luck if you have to replace an access point or router?  As for the last point, I have been able to get many of my offline devices back by power cycling them and rebooting access points and routers.

Can someone please explain the technical reasons behind the limitation that the Google employee told me?

[sipriyadarshi · Accepted solution]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for reaching out. We're happy to help understand more about Matter.

1. Multiple Matter controllers are expected to coexist in a single IP network. However for the purpose of troubleshooting, it can sometimes be helpful to isolate a single controller as a diagnostic step.
2. Google's controllers operate on both, but some end devices only operate on the 2.4 band. For most situations this should not be an issue, but is something to be aware of.
3. Inaccurate; Matter requires IP infrastructure to function.
4. Only the same IP/Thread networks should be required for the new hub. The matter end device itself possesses credentials for its operational network. When setting up a new AP: Thread should manage itself, and for WiFi you can re-use the SSID and password and move everything over.
5. Inaccurate, but recommissioning is one common method to recover from device offline issues

[Sir_Rob]

Thank you so much for clearing that up!