What happened
Ubiquiti announced UniFi Network 11 on October 12. The headline for smart home people is that UniFi is now “Matter aware”. You enter a Matter pairing code, and UniFi can show a device’s battery, firmware and signal strength where the device supports it. Thread devices also appear in the same topology view as your IP devices, with custom alerts. Matter Alpha points out this is monitoring and diagnostics only. You will not be turning lights on or building automations from it.
For anyone who has stared at a Thread device that went unavailable with no explanation, that is useful. A Time Machine feature also lets you look back at the topology to see what changed before something dropped off.
The catches on the Matter side
- Each Matter device has to be added by hand with a pairing code generated by your existing controller. Matter Alpha says there is no bulk import, so a house with dozens of devices means a lot of typing.
- You need a compatible UniFi OS gateway on version 6.0.10 or later, with IPv6 and mDNS enabled on the relevant network.
- If your smart home devices sit on their own VLAN, expect to check IPv6 and mDNS across it. That is where Matter discovery usually trips up.
- Ubiquiti has not said how this will work with its upcoming SuperLink Gateway HA, according to Matter Alpha.
What to check before you update
The bigger story for an installed system is what happens underneath. In a walkthrough from the Inside Wire channel (the video is embedded in this post), the creator lists several changes:
- You need UniFi OS 6.0 or newer, and that upgrade takes a while.
- The application database is migrated, and existing history is cleared when you update.
- The USG still works on 10.6 but cannot be upgraded to 11.0.
- The Network application server is gone, so you move to UniFi OS Server if you were using it.
- All sites are migrated to the zone-based firewall. If you have not made that move yet, the update does it for you.
The creator’s advice was blunt: “Make sure you have your backups, give yourself adequate time.” They also said that at the time of recording the build was probably still a release candidate, and that production users should wait for a general release.
Home Assistant users, take note
A thread on the Home Assistant community forum reports that the UniFi integration stopped working after updating to Network 11.0.83. That user rolled back to 10.6.106 and the integration worked again. A reply says the site ID changes during the upgrade, and that editing it makes the integration work. We have not tested either claim, so treat both as one user’s report for now. It is a single thread, but it is a good reason not to update on a Friday night if your automations depend on UniFi presence or client data.
What we would do
- If you run UniFi at home or for a client: take a backup, check whether you still have a USG, and confirm your gateway can run UniFi OS 6.0.10 or later. Wait for a stable release rather than the first one out.
- If Home Assistant reads from UniFi: hold off until more people confirm the integration works on 11.x, and know your rollback path first.
- If your Thread network is already stable: there is no rush. Adding every device by pairing code is tedious, and the monitoring does not make Thread work better. It only helps explain why something stopped.
- If you are buying Thread gear to use with UniFi monitoring: do not buy around this yet. Ubiquiti has not said how its own hardware ties in.
Done carefully, this looks like a good addition for anyone who has fought a flaky Thread mesh. Just do the boring prep first.