Hello,
I'm developing Verde, a Matter irrigation system (soil moisture sensors, a hub, and a multi-valve irrigation controller). My question is about Matter device type support in Apple Home, not about hardware or commissioning.
The failure: when an endpoint declares certain device type IDs, Home refuses to create the accessory and reports that the device is not supported. Change nothing but the device type ID, and the same accessory is created and works. So this is Home rejecting a device type, not a pairing, discovery or hardware problem.
- Water Valve — 0x0042
Device type 0x0042 Water Valve (Matter 1.3) Cluster 0x0081 Valve Configuration and Control Result in Apple Home Not supported — accessory is not created Result on other Matter controllers Created and controllable
Substitute we now ship: device type 0x010A On/Off Plug-in Unit with cluster 0x0006 On/Off. Accepted by Home immediately, and toggling the endpoint operates the valve.
The substitution works but is a misrepresentation: the user sees a row of "plugs" for a device that controls irrigation valves. There are no valve semantics, no open/close vocabulary, and nothing tells Home — or an automation the user writes — that switching this on releases water.
- Soil Sensor — Matter 1.5
Device type Soil Sensor / soil measurement, introduced in Matter 1.5 Result in Apple Home Not available
Substitute we now ship: 0x0307 Humidity Sensor with cluster 0x0405 Relative Humidity Measurement, because that is what Home renders. Soil moisture therefore appears in Home as air humidity — conceptually wrong, wrong icon, and it contaminates any humidity-based automation the user has set up.
The CSA positioned the 1.5 soil types explicitly for irrigation use with Matter water valves, so the two gaps above are the same gap for us.
- Multi-endpoint valve controller — composition
Our controller is a single accessory exposing seven independently controlled valve endpoints (endpoint IDs 1–7). Endpoints exist only for valves the installer has enabled, so the composition can legitimately change after a configuration change.
Two questions on this:
Changed composition isn't picked up. When an endpoint is removed, Home keeps showing it until the accessory is deleted and re-added. Is there a supported way to make Home re-read a device's composition in place? Preferred shape. For seven valves, does Apple prefer one accessory with seven endpoints, or a Bridge (0x000E) exposing seven separate accessories? 4. What we're asking Is Water Valve 0x0042 planned for Apple Home, and is there a timeframe we can plan to? Is the Matter 1.5 Soil Sensor device type planned? Until then, is substituting On/Off Plug-in Unit for a valve, and Humidity Sensor for soil moisture, acceptable to Apple? We'd rather follow your guidance than ship a misrepresentation we later have to undo — and than have a valve presented to users and automations as a plug. For a multi-endpoint valve controller: guidance on composition, and on refreshing a changed endpoint list in Home. Is there an authoritative, current list of the Matter device type IDs Apple Home accepts, more specific than the general support article? Designing against it is far cheaper than building an accessory and discovering Home will not create it.