Bottom line: the update itself is a background stability fix, and the one new feature it's building toward - adding several devices to Apple Home with a single QR code - doesn't fully work yet

IKEA pushed a firmware update to the DIRIGERA hub that upgrades its built-in Matter Controller to version 1.4.2, cuts down mDNS network chatter, and improves Matter/Thread connection stability. None of that is something you’ll notice directly. The part worth knowing about is narrower and more concrete: Matter 1.4.2 is the spec version that enables onboarding multiple devices from a single QR code, and when that was actually tested against Apple Home, the code was accepted but only the first device in it got added. If you own a DIRIGERA hub and use Apple Home, this update does not yet give you the “scan once, add three devices” shortcut - you’re still adding devices one at a time.

What the update actually changes

The firmware, identified as DIRIGERA hub version 2.975.2, does three things: it upgrades the hub’s Matter Controller component to the 1.4.2 spec, reduces mDNS network traffic (the background chatter Matter/Thread devices use to discover each other on your network), and improves overall Matter and Thread connection stability. IKEA and independent tech press covering the same release both describe this as a stability-and-performance update rather than one that adds a new user-facing feature you’d go looking for by name. On a network with only a handful of Matter devices you likely won’t notice a difference; the benefit shows up more as device count grows - onboarding, device discovery, and recovery after a power outage or network interruption all lean on the same background traffic this update is trimming.

The part that’s still in progress: multi-device QR onboarding with Apple Home

Matter 1.4.2 is also the version that made it technically possible to encode onboarding information for more than one device into a single QR code, instead of scanning a separate code per device. Matter Alpha’s own hands-on test of this against the DIRIGERA update put a code containing onboarding data for three devices in front of both the IKEA Home app and Apple Home. Both apps accepted the code - but in both cases, only the first device in it was actually added. The other two were not.

That’s the exact gap this cluster exists to flag: “upgraded to Matter 1.4.2” and “multi-device QR onboarding works” are two different claims, and right now only the first one is true for DIRIGERA plus Apple Home. The general protocol-level change this depends on - Matter’s Enhanced Multi-Admin, which lets a device be shared to multiple ecosystems in one step instead of repeating the process per platform - is a separate mechanism, already explained in [matter-1-4-smart-home-setup-got-easier]; what’s missing here is one specific hub’s end-to-end onboarding flow catching up to what the spec allows.

What to actually do with this if you own a DIRIGERA hub

• Don’t expect the one-scan multi-device add to work yet. If you’re setting up several new devices at once with Apple Home as your controller, plan to onboard them one at a time, the same way you have been.
• You don’t need to do anything to get the stability improvements. DIRIGERA normally downloads and installs firmware updates automatically overnight.
• To check your current version or trigger an update manually, open the IKEA Home smart app, go to Settings, select your DIRIGERA hub, and scroll to “Hub and app version” - the update corresponds to firmware 2.975.2.
• If you’re using a different controller (Google Home, Alexa, SmartThings) instead of Apple Home, this specific test result doesn’t tell you anything either way - it was only run against IKEA Home and Apple Home.

Where this fits in the bigger picture

This is a small, concrete example of the pattern this whole cluster tracks: a spec-level Matter capability existing doesn’t mean every hub’s implementation of it is finished. For the general “what changed in Matter 1.4/1.4.2 at the protocol level” background, see [matter-1-4-smart-home-setup-got-easier]; for the broader habit of checking the specific feature you want against your specific controller before assuming a version number or certification covers it, see [matter-certified-doesnt-guarantee-compatibility].

Summary

The DIRIGERA hub’s new firmware (2.975.2) upgrades its Matter Controller to 1.4.2 and improves background network stability - a real but invisible improvement. The multi-device QR onboarding that Matter 1.4.2 enables at the spec level is not yet fully working with Apple Home: a code for three devices only added the first one in Matter Alpha’s test. If that’s the feature you were waiting for, it isn’t here yet; keep onboarding devices individually until IKEA or Apple document a fix.