I have had Home Assistant running for about eight months now. The process of setting devices up required a lot of learning, and I have found that I vastly prefer Zigbee devices instead of Matter. Assuming I understand each type of device correctly as I have experimented with them:
Zigbee is a method for devices to connect over a wireless protocol, separate from the more recognized Wifi or Bluetooth. The user begins with a Zigbee hub, which the first bunch of devices will connect to. As more devices are added, those which are too far from the hub will instead connect to other Zigbee devices, which strengthens the stability and range of the home’s entire Zigbee network. Because the Zigbee network runs adjacent to Wifi, it doesn’t clutter up the user’s home internet, nor compromise its security.
Matter, I have found to be harder to set up. Matter operates over Wifi, so that user’s should set their router to have a guest network or an ‘internet of things’ network apart from their usual home network. These restrict the access Matter devices have. If the user doesn’t do this, any security problems discovered in a Matter device open the entire home to potential hacks from the outside world.
For the time being, my smarthome system has reached a point where its automations run invisibly. These are primarily lights and thermostat, but I have some other automations established for the robot vacuum and doorbell camera. This leaves me the opportunity to explore with other devices and automations I might want to add to the house, while optimizing the existing system. I have an unused tablet, which I am experimenting with as a possible replacement for the Google Nest Hub we used to have in our kitchen.