HomeKit Support for Ikea’s Smart Blinds Delayed Until Early Next Year?

Ikea’s FYRTUR AND KADRILJ Smart Blinds, which have pretty much had one of the strangest product rollouts in recent memory, look to be suffering from yet another setback, at least as far as HomeKit support goes. The blinds, which were announced at the beginning of the year have faced multiple delays, going from an anticipated Spring release, to eventually a fall product release, and they are just now becoming available for purchase online for those within the United States.

Now, already up against a small window for shipping HomeKit support by the end of the year, Ikea’s UK Twitter support account has provided a statement confirming what most of has have been expecting, that HomeKit will indeed not be hitting the blinds before the holidays. Today, when posed with the question from a user on Twitter, the Ikea UK Support account stated that “…HomeKit functionality should be added to the blinds early next year.”.

While Ikea does have a good track record as far as bringing HomeKit support to its products after they have hit the market, such as with their smart plug which gained support a few months after release, it is certainly a blow to those looking forward to having Siri and automation control their blinds in their home. Unfortunately, the “early” description is the vague answer that HomeKit fans see a lot of, with numerous devices over the years either getting support later than anticipated or not at all.

Ikea’s blinds are still in high demand as they offer one of the most affordable ways to add smart window coverings for the home, as demonstrated by product availability diminishing quickly after U.S. stores received inventory. Thankfully, the blinds do still work with Ikea’s Smart Home app, as well as with the Google Assistant, and HomeBridge is always available to bring them into HomeKit if you are willing to put in a little time and effort.

Of course, as with all things support related on Twitter, this information may not always be accurate, but it is just a matter of time that support either ships or Ikea issues an official statement regarding a delay, which we suspect is really the case here. What do you think of the latest setback for the FYRTUR blinds? Have some of the blinds and want to share your experiences?