The new smart home standard Matter will be turned into controllers by an over the air update later this month. The v2 hub will allow Matter devices to be controlled over both wi-fi and ethernet. The first company to make a public announcement of Matter certification isSamsung.
According to Jaeyeon Jung, the corporate vice president and head of SmartThings, the company received its Matter certification on Wednesday, October 12th. The Connectivity Standards Alliance, which oversees Matter, said that it started issuing certifications this week.
We used software from Silicon Labs to run both Thread and Zigbee at the same time.
Mark Benson, head of SmartThings, said at the conference that Matter support would be rolled out this month. After the keynote, Jung confirmed that all existing SmartThings hubs, the SmartThings app, and the SmartThings dongle will get over-the-air updates. The newer smart TVs, monitors, and family hub fridges will be upgraded to support Matter at a later date, says Jung.
The upgraded hubs won't be Matter bridges at the moment. Jung doesn't have a plan to support that function. Existing Zigbee and Z-Wave devices won't be exposed to Matter, but users will be able to use those connected to a Smart Things hub.
The good news is that the Thread border routers will be made by Aeotec. Silicon Labs worked with us to use software to run both Thread and Zigbee at the same time. The SmartThings v3 hub will support both Zigbee and Matter over Thread devices once the software is released.
By the end of this month, if you have a compatible smart TV or smart fridge, you will have a Smart Things Matter controller with a Thread border routers ready to go. There are no Matter devices that can be controlled. The standard was launched last week and we should see products come to market this year.
The image is labeled CSA.
A common language for smart home devices to communicate in your home without relying on a cloud connection is provided by Matter. At launch, it will include smart sensors, smart lighting, smart plugs and switches, smart thermostats, connected locks, and media devices.
If you buy a smart home device that has the Matter logo on it, you should be able to use it with any Matter compatible device and platform. Devices compatible with matter should be available by the end of the year.
We expect to see updates on the smart home platforms that are signed on to support Matter over the next few months.
Jung says they will be able to control any Thread devices using a Thread border routers built into another device, even though v2 hubs aren't capable of being upgraded to Thread. If you don't add a dongle, the software-based hubs in the smart TVs, monitors, and Family Hub fridges won't work.
According to Jung, the smart TVs and appliances that are connected to Matter will only be controllable through the Smart Things app and not other Matter controllers. TVs and appliances are not in the same spec. The Home Connectivity Alliance is an organization of major appliance manufacturers aiming to do for appliances what Matter is doing for the smart home, so someday you could control anLG washing machine in the Smart Things app and vice versa. There is no launch timing yet.
With Matter making compatibility of devices less of an issue in the smart home, Jung believes consumers will choose to use SmartThings over another platform. Smart Things built its brand on being the most open platform.
The Smart Things Home Life services, a new feature in the Smart Things app that groups smart home functions into energy management, cooking, pet care, and air quality to provide actionable advice and control, is something she mentioned. Only the energy management service can monitor the energy use of all devices connected to Smart Things. There will be more devices in these services. She says that they want to become an open platform so that people can use Smart Things with all their smart devices.
There is a little hollowness to the claim of pursuing platform openness bySamsung.
By not enabling the bridge function in its hubs, the claim of platform openness with Smart Things rings hollow. It is the only platform of the big four that supports both Z-Wave and Z-bee devices, and many devices in the first Matter category use Z-Wave protocols. The opportunity it didn't take was a unique one. It would have been the first platform to allow all Matter-enabled platforms to control compatible devices. The first way to get Z-Wave, Zigbee, and Matter all in the same system will be with a Smart Things hub.
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