Meross to Expand Matter Range With Presence Sensor

Meross was one of the first companies to announce a out-of-the-box Matter enabled product about a year and a half ago, with their Matter over WiFi smart plug (an update of which is rumoured to be coming). Now it seems, from a listing on the CSA website, Meross have designs on the presence sensor market, with their own model, that features not only presence detection, but motion detection, and a light sensor.

The Meross Smart Presence Sensor, as it’s listed as, uses mmWave Doppler radar technology found in Aqara’s own FP1 and FP2 presence sensors (video and review for the latter HERE and HERE), but also contains a standard PIR sensor. Having a PIR sensor all but guarantees faster response times than a presence sensor, even if it’s not suitable for detecting presence, and with a combined light sensor, should hold its own against other products of this type.

Due to its Matter compatibility, it should exposes all three sensors to the established Matter enabled platforms – Google, Amazon, SmartThings, and of course Apple Home, as well as Home Assistant. Of these three sensors, the listing states the light sensor can detect ambient light changes in real-time. this might appear to be a given, but as was shown with the release of Aqara’s Motion Sensor P2 with Matter over Thread (review HERE), some light sensors will only update on a motion event if they’re tied to a motion sensor.

Given that so far, Meross has only ever made products that use WiFi, or a version of RF433MHz for their hub, it’s likely this device will utilise Matter over WiFi, as battery performance would likely be terrible with the presence sensor pinging info in real time. This does depend on what kind of functionality it could offer, and as such is up again the aforementioned Aqara FP2, which essentially offers up to 30 separate presence sensors in one device, all exposed separately to Apple Home.

It’s always good to see more of this type of product, in a space where true presence sensors are limited in choice.

Credit to Adam Rzanek for the find.