Shop E Store Everything you need to know about the technology formerly known as Project CHIP
If there’s been a problem with the rise of smart home technology over the last decade, it’s that devices don’t always like to talk to each other.
Even with the introduction of easy-to-use smart speakers from Amazon, Google and Apple that could also act as smart home hubs, not all smart home devices are always compatible, so you could end up with light bulbs that did work, but with a thermostat. no. ‘t.
Matter wants to change that.
The smart home standard has been around for a couple of years and there are now a large number of certified Matter devices available.
Yes, there have been teething problems, but the standard is constantly evolving and it won’t be long before we start to see the real impact of Matter’s smart home devices in our homes.
What exactly is Matter?
Matter began life in 2019 as Project CHIP (Connected Home over IP), a collaboration between some of the biggest players in technology; Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, Zigbee Alliance and several other technology brands, whose goal was to create a unified standard for the smart home.
If you’re not familiar with the Zigbee Alliance, it itself was pretty much a who’s who of the smart home world, with Ikea, Legrand, Resideo, Samsung SmartThings, Schneider Electric, Signify, Silicon Labs and Somfy all involved, so The project really covered a huge spectrum of the market.
The idea was that Matter would make it easier for manufacturers to develop products that worked with both the three major voice assistants and each other.
Consumers can now purchase two smart home products from two different brands, and as long as they both have the Matter logo on the box, the buyer knows they are compatible.
That logo, in case you were wondering, looks a bit like a stick-shaped person wearing bikini bottoms.
In May 2021, the name was changed to Matter, while the Zigbee Alliance was renamed the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), which sounds much less like a collective of heroic bumblebees. Pity.
How does Matter work?
Rather than introducing any entirely new technology, which would slightly defeat the goal of being a unifying force, Matter uses only existing standards.
Using a little technical talk, Matter is an interoperable application layer software package for wireless IoT devices.
What that means in the real world, at least for the first version of Matter, is that it uses Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (for initial pairing), and Thread; a relatively recent network protocol that connects products from different brands without the need for a hub.
Like Zigbee and Z-Wave, Thread can connect all your devices into one giant mesh. Unlike Zigbee and Z-Wave, Thread doesn’t require a smart home hub to connect them.
Explainer: What is thread?
Thread is already built into Google’s Nest Wifi and Nest Hub Max, several Amazon Echo, HomePod Mini, and Apple TV 4K devices, and several products from a wide range of brands, including Nanoleaf, Tuya, Schneider, Aqara, Eero, and Eve.
In addition to keeping things simpler and improving interoperability, Matter also wants to make the smart home more reliable and secure, and the inclusion of Thread could be key to achieving that.
Its low-power mesh technology means that if one device on the network fails, the rest can continue to function, plus it uses AES encryption, which is backed by banking-standard public key cryptography.
Matter Controllers
Matter is also designed to be local to your home, which means less reliance on the cloud.
Control of a Matter device must also be local, according to the guidelines. Matter controllers are the brains of your Matter smart home; managing communications, automation and even remote access.
You won’t need a new Matter smart home hub though, the technology can be easily integrated into existing devices.
Smart speakers, routers, digital displays, and the like can act as Matter controllers; Companies like Google, Amazon, SmartThings, Aqara, and Apple have already updated several of their existing devices to become Matter controllers.
Not only that, but many of these devices also function as Thread edge routers and/or Thread bridges to incorporate other protocols such as Zigbee or Z-Wave.
Check out our guide to the best Matter smart home devices and controllers for more information.
The list of devices that Matter will cover is quite exhaustive: lighting and electricity, heating and cooling, locks and security devices, windows and blinds, and televisions were included in the first wave, and robotic vacuum cleaners, smoke and carbon monoxide. alarms, air quality sensors, air purifiers, freeze detectors, rain sensors, microwave ovens, stoves, extractor hoods and clothes dryers have been added to the mix as Matter 1.2, 1.3 and Came 1.4.
This will only expand further as the list of Alliance members and participants reads like a who’s who of the world of smart home technology: Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung, Philips Hue, Switchbot, Aqara , Roborock, Huawei, Oppo, Logitech, Xiaomi, iRobot and Panasonic are just a few of the names on the list of more than 600.
In short, it should cover your entire smart home.
When Matter 1.0 went live in November 2022, the CSA announced that it had certified more than 190 smart home devices for Matter and that number has steadily increased since then.
That initial launch included eight device categories: light bulbs and switches, outlets, door locks, thermostats and HVAC controllers, blinds and shades, smart sensors, bridges, smart TVs and streaming devices.
Fast forward to October 2023 and with Matter 1.2 up and running, we were up to 17 device types for Matter, with refrigerators, air conditioners, dishwashers, washing machines, robotic vacuum cleaners, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, air quality sensors and air purifiers. and fans got into the mix.
The CSA also used the release of 1.2 to inform us that more than 24,600 downloads of the Matter specification had been made, resulting in 1,214 Matter device certifications.
Matter 1.3 arrived in May 2024 and added support for water management devices such as leak and freeze detectors, rain sensors, and controllable water valves; electric vehicle chargers, microwave ovens, cooktops, extractor hoods and clothes dryers.
Subject 1.4, the CSA told us at IFA 2014, will focus on smart energy management and introduce devices such as heat pumps into the equation.
Matter now supports more than 40 device types.
What about the existing kit?
This largely depends on the manufacturer and device, but some companies have already updated their existing products to support Matter.
Those companies include companies like Philips Hue, Eve, WiZ, Govee, and Nanoleaf, and the big boys: Apple, Amazon, Google, and SmartThings have already started making their devices Matter-compatible.
CES 2024 and IFA 2014 were flooded with new Matter devices from companies like Roborock, Ecovacs, Aqara, and Cync, all announcing new Matter devices.
Guides…
The fact that Matter works with existing technology standards (and can be implemented with a simple software update) helps on this front, although the inexorable march of capitalism teaches us that many brands are likely to use Matter’s compatibility to offer you new things.
Additionally, Matter is designed to work alongside existing smart home standards. So if you already have a full Z-Wave network, for example, you’ll be able to link it to Matter using a third-party bridge and hub that supports different standards.
This handy image that Tuya had at its booth at IFA 2022 demonstrates how this could work:
Legacy devices from before Matter will also be able to reach the Matter party, via a Matter-certified hub or bridge.
This is the path taken by Signify, for example, which has certified its Hue Bridge Matter but does not add Matter to individual bulbs.
The good news is that your 10-year-old Hue bulbs will sync with a Matter system, the bad news is that we’re still not likely to see the end of extra hubs and bridges anytime soon.
Casting material
Most of the coverage of Matter’s launch has focused on smart home devices such as sensors, locks, and lights, but there is one important feature included in Matter that has flown a bit under the radar.
Matter Casting, which is available to TV brands building with Matter, has big plans to transform the video streaming category from chunked device to screen.
Matter not only enables control of smart TVs, but also gives developers, streaming platforms and TV manufacturers the tools to offer users a new, and hopefully easier, way to stream video action from a device. like a smartphone, tablet, or even a smart speaker. to a television.
Matter 1.3 also included improved streaming and TV features, such as allowing you to get pop-ups on a Matter-enabled TV from other devices.
Do you have rivals?
Sort of, but not really, as even “rival” platforms will want to be compatible with a Matter smart home system.
With Zigbee and Samsung’s SmartThings part of the Matter family, there’s really only Z-Wave as a genuine competitor.
Z-Wave started back in 2001, when the idea of a smart home was still the stuff of science fiction for most people, but there are now more than 100 million Z-Wave devices in use around the world, with more than 3300 Z-Wave. -Certified products available for purchase.
While Z-Wave is not on Matter’s list of partners, the outbreak of a good old-fashioned format war seems unlikely.
Avi Rosenthal, Managing Partner of Bluesalve Partners, who currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Z-Wave Alliance, recently explained to us:
“Do I see Matter as competition? I absolutely do. Do I also see Matter as an opportunity? I absolutely do.
“We are willing to help; “We are willing to be part of the conversation.” he explained. “We don’t see it as an us-and-them scenario, we see it as an opportunity for all of us to work together.”
The chairman of Z-Wave’s board of directors even went so far as to say that he hopes 2024 will be the year we see a Matter to Z-Wave bridge.
Phew.
Full steam ahead for Matter
Well, not quite, in the roughly 2 years that Matter has existed in the real world, it has hit a number of bumps along the way.
The launch was tremendously complicated, which you can read all about here.
As we explained, Matter is designed to work on a wide range of devices from different manufacturers. However, ensuring that all of these devices can communicate seamlessly with each other has proven to be a complex task.
Even with Matter certification, some devices may still have difficulty integrating with specific hubs or platforms.
Take the Aqara Hub M3 for example; a Matter controller that launched, with the Matter logo on the box, that only officially works with Philips Hue, Nest thermostats, and Leviton switches and dimmers at launch.
The whole point of Matter, if it has the Matter logo on the box, is that you don’t have to worry about which brands work with what.
And then there’s the small fact that we still haven’t seen any support from Apple, SmartThings, Alexa, or Google for some of the device types released in Matter 1.2… even though 1.4 is now available.
What happens with Matter is that is complicated. Try explaining to your friends that this is not actually a new communication technology, but simply an application layer that sits on top of a set of existing protocols.
However, the plan was to eliminate those complications before they reached the consumer. If a smart home device you buy at the store has the Matter label on the box, then it was meant to work. No hubs, no extra apps, no hassle.
That’s far from the case right now. It’s just that everything is a little… messy.
Not all of this means that Matter is dead in the water; Nothing of the sort. But it’s also a million miles away from the smart home utopia we all wanted.
