Get even smarter homes with Matter

Anyone else have a wealth of smart home devices that won’t talk to each other? Can’t decide between which brand to use? Have you got hundreds of apps clogging up your phone to operate all your smart devices?

It looks like we could be avoiding the headache in future. Say hello to the new industry standard, IP-based connectivity protocol – Matter.

What is Matter?

Matter is an open-source, royalty free connection system that is open to brands across the world. With brands all operating from the same system, customers could potentially enjoy a more seamless experience when buying and connecting their smart home devices. The devices will be able to operate together all by using a single app or voice control, such as Alexa, making it easier and more reliable to integrate them into our homes. With the three giants on board – Amazon, Apple and Google – it’s looking promising!

Buying what we want without the hassle.

When will Matter be available?

With plans to come to market in 2022, the 4th generation Echo devices and eero products will be the first of Amazon’s products to support Matter over Thread and Wi-Fi. Customers will be able to connect any of their Matter-enabled smart home devices to their Echo speakers. They’ll then be able to control them within the Alexa app and with voice control. We’re talking sensors, plugs, switches and lighting just for starters. All those things that weren’t compatible with Alexa before now could be.

Are Amazon taking over our homes? Probably.

Amazon’s smart home philosophy has always been flexibility, privacy, collaboration and interoperability. Matter reinforces that. Manufacturers get to build to their own protocols whilst Amazon get to have more devices in people’s homes that are compatible with Alexa. The invasion continues!

Similar to the Alexa Connect Kit, Matter plan to release a software development kit in 2022, making it easier for manufacturers to create compatible products.

Click here to see more on Amazon’s support of Matter.