Tuya Highlights Matter Cameras, Thread, and Energy Monitoring at IFA 2026
Tuya used IFA 2026 to highlight its expanding support for Matter, showcasing a broad range of compatible smart home products and technologies that included Matter over Thread, Matter over Wi-Fi, bridges, energy monitoring, and Matter-compatible cameras.
While Tuya may not be a familiar consumer brand in the same way as Aqara, Eve, or Philips Hue, its smart home platform and modules are used by a large number of manufacturers. As a result, developments within Tuya’s platform can ultimately find their way into products sold under numerous third-party brands.
A FULL-STACK APPROACH TO MATTER
At IFA, Tuya promoted what it described as a ‘full-stack Matter portfolio’, supporting Matter devices using Thread, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet. The company’s Matter ecosystem covered a wide selection of smart home categories, including lighting, smart plugs, sensors, curtain motors, thermostatic radiator valves, smart locks, gateways, control panels, and cameras.
Tuya also demonstrated bridge solutions designed to bring existing Zigbee, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi devices into Matter ecosystems. This allows manufacturers using Tuya’s platform to retain support for established wireless technologies while exposing compatible devices to Matter platforms. For Apple Home users, the significance is that Matter provides a common route into ecosystems including Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings without manufacturers necessarily having to develop separate integrations for each platform.
MATTER OVER THREAD
Thread also formed part of Tuya’s Matter strategy at IFA, with the company showcasing Matter over Thread alongside its Wi-Fi and Ethernet implementations. Thread has become increasingly important within the Matter ecosystem, particularly for low-power devices such as sensors, switches, and other accessories that don’t require the bandwidth of Wi-Fi. For Apple Home users, Matter over Thread devices can communicate through the existing Thread infrastructure provided by compatible Apple home hubs, including HomePod mini and selected Apple TV 4K models.
MATTER CAMERAS ENTER THE PICTURE
Perhaps the most notable part of Tuya’s IFA showcase was the inclusion of cameras within its Matter portfolio. Camera support is one of the more significant recent expansions of the Matter standard, potentially allowing compatible cameras and video doorbells to provide greater interoperability between smart home platforms.
Tuya’s involvement could be particularly important given the number of manufacturers already using its hardware modules, cloud services, and development platform. Rather than representing a single new camera product, Tuya’s support could provide manufacturers with a relatively straightforward route towards developing their own Matter-compatible cameras.
Exactly how individual Tuya-based Matter cameras will integrate with Apple Home will ultimately depend on both the capabilities implemented by manufacturers and Apple’s support for the relevant Matter camera features.
ENERGY MONITORING
Tuya also highlighted energy management as part of its Matter ecosystem at IFA. Compatible products can provide real-time power consumption information, allowing manufacturers to build energy monitoring into devices such as smart plugs and other connected electrical products.
Energy monitoring has become an increasingly important part of Matter, with newer versions of the specification expanding standardised energy-management capabilities rather than requiring manufacturers to rely entirely on proprietary apps and cloud services.
AI-BASED SMART HOME CONTROL
Beyond Matter, Tuya heavily promoted AI at IFA 2026 through its “Hey Tuya” system. The platform is designed to interpret more natural instructions rather than relying solely on predefined smart home commands. Tuya demonstrated examples such as a user saying they’re leaving home, with the system interpreting the request and activating appropriate monitoring or security devices.
The company also demonstrated a wider range of AI-powered products at IFA, covering areas including home security, pet care, sleep, health, and elderly care. These products aren’t necessarily relevant to Apple Home in their own right, but the IFA demonstrations showed how Tuya intends to combine its existing smart home platform with generative AI and Matter interoperability.
MORE THAN JUST TUYA PRODUCTS
For Matter users, the importance of Tuya’s announcements wasn’t necessarily the individual products demonstrated at IFA. Tuya provides development platforms, modules, software, and cloud infrastructure to a large number of smart home manufacturers. Expanded Matter support at the platform level therefore has the potential to result in significantly more Matter-compatible products appearing under different brands.
With Matter over Thread, bridging, energy monitoring, and cameras forming part of its platform, Tuya’s IFA 2026 showcase suggested the company is preparing its manufacturing partners for a considerably broader Matter ecosystem.
