UserLabel or FixedLabel for custom matter devices

[orchid surge]

Hey everyone,

I'm currently developing a matter device with MatterJS. As a starting point, I just wanted to have a simple button with a label. But I was not able to set the label in a way that it is displayed in HomeAssistant. I searched a bit and found different pull requests regarding labels of matter devices. e.g [0]. For me, it looks like I currently only get labels for devices listed in [1]. It appears that there is no way to have an adequate label for other matter devices/components. The userLabel and FixedLabel are just ignored, and instead, in HomeAssistant, I only see "Button (1), Button (2)" etc., which is really not helpful.

Is my observation correct, and is there no way to set a label for a matter component besides editing the label in HA manually? Or is the error on my side, and I just set the label in the wrong way?

(I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this question.)

[0] https://github.com/home-assistant/core/pull/154173
[1] https://github.com/home-assistant/core/blob/f3ddffb5ffe40627d7809e8911a4948f418e6472/homeassistant/components/matter/entity.py#L43

[paper minnow]

You're right, the filter is in the right place.
Only a few manufacturers have implemented this correctly, so we had no choice but to filter this way.

[coarse heron]

My recollection is that support for labels is still a work in progress in home assistant, and it's hindered by a number of products setting it incorrectly - often leaving in example values, in particular.

[paper minnow]

All of this will be replaced by Matter tags with namespaces.
This is not yet supported because it causes a lot of problems with translation.

To my knowledge, no manufacturer currently supports this at the controller level.

[coarse heron]

The fact that no controller supports it is probably why the people developing matter products didn't realize their labels were bad, tbh. Kinda wish that the matter certification would have picked that up.

[paper minnow]

It seems that certification prior to Matter 1.3 was too permissive.

[paper minnow]

It's always the same dilemma.
The ecosystem isn't ready because there are no products, and manufacturers say the opposite.

[orchid surge]

So there is no way for me to get my label into homeassistant? Wouldn't it at least be reasonable to use the labels for dev-devices? Do you know how other SmartHomeSystem like Alexa or GoogleHome behave in these terms? Do all of them just ignore the labels? Of what kind of timescale are we talking if you say that this will be replaced by Matter tags with namespaces?

[paper minnow]

Apart from modifying the Matter integration source code, no, it is not possible.

You can try in a dev env:
https://developers.home-assistant.io/docs/development_environment/

Matter >=1.3 devices with multiple similar endpoints must implement tags to pass certification.
Labels are deprecated.

So tags are already implemented on devices on the market, mainly for multi-button devices.

To my knowledge, no ecosystem supports labels except Home Assistant.

And for tags, only numbers for buttons with Alexa.

[orchid surge]

ok thanks for the fast response. Well, then I have to find a different solution. Do you have an idea how I could get information, like a status report via Matter into HA? Is there a way to send, e.g., a text message from a Matter device into HA?

[paper minnow]

Without using a manufacturer cluster, I don't see how.