Anyone who lives in the Apple smart home ecosystem has not yet been able to use the interesting control knob from Swedish provider Shortcut Labs: Dame Flick Twist Both HomeKit and (initially) Matter connections were missing, although there was a €680,000 Kickstarter campaign.
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But now Matter support has finally been added to Flick Twist: there’s a recent update for it In the manufacturer’s support area However, the implementation is very unique: instead of being able to integrate the Flick Twist into the HomeKit network through Matter, this is only possible the other way around: HomeKit devices have to translate to Flick.
Flick as its own ecosystem
Specifically, this means that Flick has not made the Flick Twist matter-enabled, which costs 80 euros, but rather the required hub, which costs another 90 euros. Shortcut Labs wants to become a kind of ecosystem itself: users should do it, says company manager Joacim Westlund Prandell IT Blog for The VergeConnect your existing HomeKit accessories that support Matter to the Flick Hub. Then it is also possible to control the devices using Flick Twist.
iOS 18.2: Five features we’re looking forward to by the end of the yearPreviously, the regular Flic 2 button without rotary function, the “Flic button” at a price of 36 euros, was compatible with HomeKit as long as you only bought the Flic hub and powered it up in the HomeKit network. Many users expected it to also work with the Flic Twist via Matter. But as mentioned, this is not the case. The reason is said to be that neither HomeKit nor Matter support twist-type rotary controls, for example to work as a dimmer, volume control or blind height adjustment button. “Our Flic Twist is the first rotating device that you can use with Matter, which I think is really cool,” said Prandel.
All Matter devices united under the Flick Hub
In practice, this means that you must first log out of HomeKit all the devices you want to control with the Flic Twist so that you can log them back into the Flic app. Matter supports pairing modes including new codes that can be accessed in the corresponding device settings of the Home app. These are then entered or scanned into the Flic software. “They have to use our products to control other important things,” Prandel admitted to The Verge. “At least you are completely independent of these privacy issues in big tech companies.”
Flick creators from Shortcut Labs emphasize that they do not synchronize any information on any cloud server. Flick Twist should support “virtually everything that is in the Matter standard”. Only through the Swede’s own software, which many customers will have imagined differently. Because once Matter-enabled HomeKit devices are there, they can no longer be controlled through Apple’s Home app.
(B.Sc.)
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