Who said a minimalist home can't also be a smart home, eh?
Spotted by the blog Zatz Not Funny, Ikea has quietly debuted smart blinds that pair with voice assistants on its German website. That means Ikea customers in Europe will soon be able to control their window shades with Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple's HomeKit.
The smart blinds are called the KADRILJ and FYRTUR. They'll be available in Europe starting on February 2, and will run from 99 to 155 euros. The black-out shades come in five sizes; the KADRILJ is darker than the FURTUR. According to the Ikea website, they're wireless and battery-powered. There's also a remote if you want to roll your shades up and down the (semi) old fashioned way.
This isn't Ikea's first foray into the smart home. In March 2017, the company announced its Ikea Home Smart project, run through a smart-assistant compatible app called Trådfri on iOS or Android. That's already brought us Ikea's smart bulbs and a range of AI-controlled LED products. Ikea also partnered with Sonos to produce smart speakers.
There's no word yet on whether US Ikea customers will be able to make their window coverings smarter, though Mashable has reached out to Ikea to find out. Hopefully we'll be able to *shed some light on that* soon.
UPDATE: Jan. 8, 2019, 1:58 p.m. EST
Ikea's smart blinds are indeed coming to the United States.
An Ikea representative said that its line of smart blinds would get a "global debut" February 1st. That date doesn't include the US.
Instead, the FYRTUR blind will become available to US customers on April 1st, 2019.
