I bought the Google TV Streamer 4K to replace an aging Chromecast. Three weeks later, I pulled a $40 smart home hub out of my network closet because the streamer had already taken over its job.
Here’s the thing most reviews miss: this works as a smart home hub first and a streaming box second, even though Google sells it as the opposite. The streaming part works fine. It’s the other part that changed how I think about the device entirely.
Google TV Streamer 4K as a smart home hub
What Thread and Matter support actually do
The Streamer has a Thread border router and Matter support built in. I didn’t know what that meant when I first saw it on the spec sheet; Thread is basically a low-power wireless network that smart home devices use to talk to each other directly, instead of each one hogging its own Wi-Fi connection. My Hue bulbs and a couple of no-name smart plugs I bought on Amazon during a Prime Day panic now just show up on that network without me doing anything.
Most smart TVs can’t do this. A Samsung or LG panel will run your streaming apps fine, but it has no idea what to do with a smart lock or a motion sensor. That’s still a job for a separate hub, unless the TV itself is one.
Why does that actually matter? Thread devices don’t route through your router the way Wi-Fi gadgets do. They form their own mesh, hopping from device to device, and all they need is one border router sitting somewhere central in the house. Google decided that the border router should live inside a $99.99 streaming box you were already going to buy, anyway. It’s a weird move on Google’s part — sneaking niche smart home tech into a mainstream streaming box — but if you can actually use it, it’s a steal.
Before that, my hub situation was a mess. I had an Aqara hub in the closet for a couple of door sensors, a separate Hue Bridge tucked behind the TV for lighting, and a thermostat that talked to its own cloud service and nothing else. Three different ecosystems, three apps, and not a single one talked to the other. Buying a dedicated hub to unify all that would’ve run me another $50 to $80 depending on the brand. The Streamer folded the job into a device I was already replacing.
How to set up Matter devices on the Google TV Streamer 4K
Pairing smart plugs and sensors
The Google Home app found the Streamer as soon as I plugged it in. Adding Matter devices from there was mostly scan-a-QR-code-and-wait. I scanned the code on the back of a smart plug, waited for about 10 seconds, and it appeared as a controllable device on the TV’s home panel.
Three plugs, two door sensors, and a thermostat ended up running off a box that was already sitting on my entertainment center. The Aqara sensors needed a firmware update before Matter would recognize them, which cost me about ten extra minutes and a mildly annoying evening, but everything else paired on the first try. The home panel pops up right on the TV, so now I check whether I left a light on during commercial breaks instead of pulling out my phone.
The remote has a programmable button on the back, too. I set mine to toggle the porch lights. It’s a small thing, but I use it more than I expected to.
Google TV Streamer 4K vs. smart TVs for smart home control
Why Samsung and LG TVs can’t act as a Thread border router
Smart TVs run on tightly locked-down software that likes to track you, built by whoever made the panel, and none of the major manufacturers have shipped a Thread radio standard across their lineups. Some newer sets tack on Matter support as a controller, meaning they can flip a switch someone else’s hub already manages, but that’s a different job than being the border router. The Streamer sits in that second category, and it’s one of the cheapest devices on the market to do so.
Apple TV 4K does something similar through HomeKit and Thread, and it now costs $199 for the base model. The Streamer undercuts it by thirty bucks while covering the same ground, plus it plays nicer with the wider array of Matter-certified gadgets that aren’t locked to Apple’s ecosystem. If you’re not already three years deep into HomeKit, there’s not much reason to pay the premium.
Google TV Streamer 4K smart home limitations
To be fair, this won’t replace a dedicated hub if you have an advanced setup. Power users juggling dozens of Zigbee devices from older ecosystems will hit a wall, since Zigbee isn’t the same protocol as Thread, and the Streamer won’t bridge it for you unless the manufacturer has built a separate Matter bridge. And Google’s own history of abandoning smart home hardware (RIP, original Nest Hub app integrations) makes me a little cautious about betting my whole house on this staying supported long-term. Google abandoning product lines a few years post-launch is a well-documented habit at this point.
4K HDR with Dolby Vision plays cleanly, no dropped frames, no stutter scrubbing through anything. Cold app opens are maybe a second slower than my Apple TV 4K. That’s it, that’s the whole complaint.
The real selling point? I stopped thinking about a smart home hub as a separate buy. It’s just there, running in the background of a device I turn on every night, anyway. For $100, getting that much smart home infrastructure baked into a streaming box is a steal. If you’re building out a Matter-based setup, buy this before you go shopping for a standalone hub.