Matter products

What's the "Matter"?

"Matter" is a new open source standard for home automation created by the Connectivity Standards Alliance

Its goal is to create a more functional and safer smart home ecosystem by defining a common language and protocol for communication between devices. It also aims to reduce the complexity and cost of smart home systems by providing a unified open source standard that all manufacturers are free to use. By adopting the Matter standard, manufacturers can create devices that are fully compatible with other Matter-enabled devices, regardless of brand. Matter 1.0 uses a combination of Wi-Fi and Thread protocols for wireless communication between devices. It also uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) during initial setup via Android's Fast Pair feature.

Why should I consider using Matter for smarthome setup?

Here are five reasons why Matter is becoming popular, and why it could soon be the best smart home solution for you: 

1. It's unmatched in functionality: One of the biggest challenges of creating a smart home is getting all your devices to work seamlessly, regardless of brand. Matter solves this problem by providing devices with a common language and protocol for communication between devices. In other words, Matter-compatible devices from different manufacturers work together without problems.

2. It's cost-effective: Matter is an open-source standard, meaning manufacturers can use it for free. This helps to reduce the costs of creating and maintaining smart home systems for both manufacturers and consumers.

3. Secure & safe: Matter aims to provide more secure communication between devices. It includes enhanced security features such as secure key exchange and secure device deployment. This is important to protect your home smart devices and personal data from unauthorized access. 

4. Future-proof: As more and more devices adopt the Matter standard, it becomes easier than ever to add new devices to a smart home without compatibility issues. This way, as a consumer, you are not stuck with certain brands, but you can freely add Matter-compatible devices from different manufacturers to your home.

5. Extensive support and development: The background behind Matter is the Connectivity Standards Alliance, an organization of more than 500 companies committed to creating and promoting the simple use of standards in smart home devices. Such support will help ensure that Matter is widely adopted in the smart home market. 

Who currently supports the Matter standard?

Among others, Google and Philips Hue have announced that they will give their full support and most of their devices support Matter.

According to Google, Google Nest and Android devices already support Matter as Matter hubs. At least the original Google Home speaker, Google Home Mini, Nest Mini, Nest Audio, Nest Hub (1st and 2nd gen), Nest Hub Max and the new Nest Wifi Pro work as hubs.

The Philips Hue Bridge supports Matter and the update is free for all devices and users. Bridge's update does not affect existing customizations or Google and Amazon integrations.

However, Apple HomeKit users have to connect their devices again via Matter. Apple added Matter support to the iPhone and iPad product families in iOS and iPadOS 16.1. in the version. 

Most of the Amazon Echo product family supports Matter, for example Amazon Alexa. 

IKEA's DIRIGERA also supports Matter

Summary

In summary, it can be stated that Matter is a technology that brings exciting development in the field of smart homes, because it aims to solve interoperability problems, it is cost-effective with safe technology, and the development is future-oriented.