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At the pre-show keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company talked about its plans for Matter compatibility.
Screenshot by Tuohy.
There was a lot of buzz about a chip two years ago at the Consumer Electronics Show, but it was a new alliance of major tech companies. It was supposed to develop an open-source smart home standard that would make every connected home device work together, simply and securely, regardless of who made them. The buzz was that it was never going to happen.
Matter was the darling of the show, with a full dance card and a line of admirers that stretched to the virtual Starbucks.
Every smart home device announcement this week had the slogan "and we announce our support for Matter." The infrastructure received significant support. There were new chips designed for Matter, Amazon announced device makers can now add Frustration-Free Setup on their Matter-certified devices. The Fast Pair version of the simplified setup was shown by the search engine. Plugging in new smart home products will be all you have to do once you get them home, as these announcements mean.
The president of the Connectivity Standards Alliance that oversees Matter told me that the wave of Matter news at the show was a testament to the hard work that has gone into the development and testing of Matter in 2021. Hundreds of companies and thousands of engineers are at the heart of this global solution, creating a more open and innovative internet of things.
Related.
Matter has a plan to save the smart home.
Amazon confirmed that it will share your smart home with other voice assistants. The main promise of Matter is that you will be able to control your smart devices with the app or voice assistant of your choice. We are seeing how that will be done.
Amazon introduced new tools for developers that allow them to add the voice assistant to a device already set up in another system. You have to set it up individually for each one, even though you can control it with multiple apps and voice assistants. It will be done with Matter. This new capability allows for quicker response times and the chance to use your devices even if the internet is down, which is a nice bonus.
Smart home products should work together. Make it happen.
In all, close to 30 companies showcased their involvement and pledged their support for the new smart home standard. Tuya Smart, an internet of things development platform service provider based in China that supports over 446,000 developers with over 1,100 smart home products, said it will support Matter. There were a number of new products with Thread.
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Matter hub devices are designed for the new tri-radio chip from NXP.
The image is of NXP.
It is currently scheduled for June 2022, so we have a better idea of what Matter will bring with it. We are facing a bleak mid-Winter before Matter arrives, so let's take a step back and assess.
It seems like there is a clear direction from the consumer for the smart home products to work together. Make it happen.
Matter should not leave existing smart homes in the dark.
The major appliance companies of the world have been convinced to do the same thing by the big momentum. They created an alliance to make sure your dishwasher can talk to your fridge. The Home Connectivity Alliance was formed to make sure legacy home appliances can move into the internet of things future, according to the president of the HCA.
Matter has largely skirted the issue of upgradability of existing devices, one that it really needs to address. We know that the newer smart speakers and hubs from Amazon and Google have an upgrade path.
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When Matter arrives, Amazon will bring its existing smart speakers and displays into it.
The image is from Amazon.
It is looking like creating a Matter smart home is going to require users to buy a lot of new gadgets. The whole program won't work if we don't leave devices behind, asMitch Klein of the Z-Wave Alliance told me late last year. Everyone has to throw everything out and start over again. Matter must not leave existing smart homes in the dark.
Which lock will be the lucky one?
Yale and August are working to make their smart locks work with Matter. The president of August and Yale Real Living told me that they plan to bring the first Matter lock to market when the standard launches. The company already has one Thread-enabled lock, the aging Nest x Yale smart lock, and is looking at other ways to introduce the technology. He said the August locks won't be among the first to be updated, but they are looking at ways to bring their existing products into the new smart home.
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The Schlage Encode Plus smart lock is Thread-enabled.
The image is Schlage.
Schlage may beat Yale with its first Thread-enabled product, the Schlage Encode Plus lock. Donald Beene of Schlage said that the hardware is there for Matter, even though Thread supports HomeKit. He said that this will be the first lock product with hardware on board to support something like that.
The lights are all on.
Matter was on your mind this week if you make smart lights, switches, and plugs. The Wemo Smart Plug, Wemo Smart Light Switch, and Wemo Smart Dimmer will support Thread. Cync, the GE Lighting company, told me that its A19 bulb and light strip will be compatible with Matter, and smart lighting company Sengled said that it will have its first A19 bulb ready to go when the standard launches. The mains-powered lighting panels of the Nanoleaf Shapes, Elements, and Lines will become Thread border routers, initially for Thread over HomeKit but with an eye to Matter-compatibility.
There are still smart home hubs.
It will take a while for Matter to mitigate the multiple hub / gateway / bridge issue down to one box. In the future, we will need Matter Controllers to act as remote controls for your home, and we hope that they will be better.
This smart home controller is likely to be part of that when it makes it to the US, since it was part of the new hub announced this week. Aqara will update its M2 and M1S hubs to make all compatible connected sensors move over to Matter. It is developing Thread versions of its popular motion and contact sensors.
The home security system is based on the modular hub of the company. The company decided to finally join Matter and the word modular has us intrigued. The first product of Arlo's to get Matter support is likely to be the new all-in-one sensors, which are currently not part of the Matter spec.
The smart home hub that Veea showed off will be compatible with Matter. The Veea STAX Smart Hub is a smart home hub and a 6 mesh wi-fi network, with the option of adding a cellular connection through a stackable module. A smart speaker module with microphones is in the works, as well as Lutron and a number of other bridge tech and HomeKit compatibility. The initial launch is targeted at communications companies, but the company says it will soon be available to consumers.
