Home Assistant’s new USB stick promises to end smart home chaos for $49

Home Assistant, the increasingly popular smart home platform that many enthusiasts now prefer over Google Home, has a new piece of hardware that promises to end your smart home chaos once and for all. Called the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2, this $49 device is a USB adapter designed to unify Zigbee, Thread, and Matter devices under one roof, no separate hubs ro apps required.

If your smart home setup consists of multiple apps and brand-specific hubs, and lacks flexibility when it comes to automation, this is the device for you.

Home Assistant has exploded in popularity over the last few years, especially among power users looking for more control, better reliability, and stronger privacy. It runs locally, avoids unnecessary cloud processing, and supports thousands of devices, giving users ownership of their data and greater flexibility.

Connect ZBT-2 is designed by the team behind Home Assistant. You can think of it as one adapter to rule them all. Connect ZBT-2 acts as a universal bridge for nearly any modern smart home device, including Zigbee devices like Philips Hue, IKEA Tradfri, Aqara, and Sonoff, as well as Thread and Matter devices. It allows you to connect your entire smart home ecosystem directly to a single hub. So instead of having separate hubs for each ecosystem (Hue Bridge, Aqara Hub, etc.), plus multiple apps on your phone, the ZBT-2 will funnel everything directly into the Home Assistant app. All you have to do is plug it into a spare USB port on your Home Assistant system, and a setup wizard handles the rest.

This is a second-generation upgrade over the 2022 ZBT-1 adapter and brings a number of new features for better performance and reliability. The Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 now comes with a precisely tuned antenna for stronger range and stability, and four times the internal speed of the first-gen adapter. The makers also promise easy OTA updates for major smart home brands. Moreover, the ZBT-2 is fully open, easy to disassemble, and the company says smart home enthusiasts can tinker with it however they want.