With the announcement this week that Matter, the smart home standard, is finally rolling out, and the possibility that we may see Matter devices arrive at any time, I wanted to summarize the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions I’ve heard in the last few days.
If you don’t know what Matter is, my Matter interpreter is where to start. However, if you have a more specific question, the answer should be here. If you’re just wondering which devices work with Matter, we covered it in another news that we’ll update as new products come out.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about Matter until we get a Matter-enabled product at home and update the app and ecosystem. But we know a lot, and we can speculate about some things.
Last week, I attended an Expo, where I moderated a panel discussion on Matter and interviewed representatives, many of whom were involved in Matter. I asked them these questions and reviewed the responses from the published materials to help you understand what launching Matter means for your smart home today.
Matter is a new language for smart home devices. Once your smart door lock can easily communicate with your smart speaker, or your smart light switch can seamlessly communicate with your thermostat, the connected home becomes less complicated.
“The organic growth of the smart home over the past 10 years has created a lot of challenges,” said. “One of them is that these devices can’t all speak the same language. With Matter, we have the ability to make them all speak the same language.”
It’s like hitting the big smart home reset button, laying the foundation for a smarter and more functional home.
While Matter is technically a smart home communication protocol, it’s not entirely new. Matter is an application layer on top of existing Wi-Fi and Thread protocols. It’s open source, not proprietary, and it runs on your local network so it doesn’t depend on the cloud.
With Matter, instead of using two or three separate apps and connecting their cloud service backend, your smart plug turns on the light when you open your front door, the plug and lock can communicate with each other directly, you can use the Matter controller. the application sets up automation.
The substance does not replace existing protocols. Bluetooth, Zigbee and Z-Wave will still be part of the smart home (Bluetooth LE is used to add devices to Matter). Any of your smart home devices using these technologies should be able to connect to Matter (more on that later).
Matter was originally developed by many of the biggest names in technology, including Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung SmartThings, and Comcast. There are currently more than 280 companies on board – a list similar to the “who’s who” list of the Internet of Things. But why did they all decide to work together?
The smart home is not evolving in the way many hoped. There are several major pain points that make it difficult to grow and expand. Reliability, connectivity, customization, and “multi-platform issues” are key areas that Google’s Michelle Turner identified in my interview with her earlier this year. The first promises of seemingly limitless growth evaporated in the face of complexity and user frustration. Large technology companies and hundreds of IoT device manufacturers saw this bottleneck and realized that they needed to cooperate.
You can ask Siri to control your thermostat and turn on your TV – if you live in one of those crazy houses.
Since I began to illuminate Matter, I have repeatedly heard the phrase “the tide raises all boats.” Once smart homes become easier to set up and use, more people will buy the devices that every company wants.
Before using Matter, device manufacturers had to choose a protocol to solve a problem, or develop several different models or integrations to give customers a choice. It’s harder, more expensive for them, and very confusing for us.
One Lock manufacturer told me, “We have developed a dozen modules for different platforms to make our locks work with them. Matter promises that I only need to create one module.”
He noted that today there are many companies that only produce products for Z-Wave, Zigbee or Bluetooth because they are too expensive to try to diversify. Now all these manufacturers can choose the protocol that works for each platform. “If Matter delivers on that promise, it will go a long way in this issue and bringing in more manufacturers,” he said.
For example, Eva chose to use only Apple HomeKit and develop only Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices for this platform. With Matter, the company plans to expand to more platforms.
The downside is that Matter is only available in a few device categories at launch. These are smart bulbs and fixtures, smart sockets and switches, smart thermostats and other controls, smart curtains, smart sensors, connected locks, and multimedia devices including TVs.
But CSA is already working on new types of devices, including security cameras and robotic vacuum cleaners. “It’s just Matter 1.0,” said CSA’s Michelle Mindala-Freeman. “There’s a huge amount of work in progress – device types, features – [that] are working on future releases.”
Will not. Matter uses your home’s local network—Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Thread (Thread is a mesh-based IP protocol)—and runs purely locally. Nothing goes online or “cloud” unless you’re using a substance controller or device app that communicates with the cloud. The main reason for this is to control your home remotely or connect to cloud services such as music streaming or voice assistants while you are away.
Security is part of the Matter SDK and part of the Data Privacy Principles. The CSA has released a white paper detailing the features, but the concept is built around trusted devices, trusted controllers, and private communications.
The Matter Controller is your way to control the Matter devices in your home. This is the brain of the system. Like routers with flow boundaries, controller functionality can be built into many devices, and you can have multiple controllers.
We already know that devices like the Amazon Echo and Nest Hub speakers and smart displays will be controllers. The controller can also be a flow boundary router, but it doesn’t have to be.
The Matter controller can also be a bridge or a hub; Samsung SmartThings hubs, TVs and home appliances will be controllers, as will the Apple HomePod Mini. Bridges and hubs from manufacturers such as Philips Hue and Aqara can also become controllers (Aqara said it will upgrade its M1S and M2 hubs to Matter).
Finally, Matter-enabled smartphone apps such as Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, or Samsung SmartThings are also controllers. This will be where you set up procedures and automation in your smart home. All of the listed companies say their app will control the substances, but there may be more options.
Matter does not need a central bridge or node. Instead, it allows devices to communicate directly with each other via Wi-Fi or Thread, which is then controlled by the Matter Controller.
Thread devices need a Thread edge router to route traffic from Thread devices to Wi-Fi devices. Flow boundary routers are already in use in many common smart home devices – from Wi-Fi routers to smart speakers and smart lights – and we’re likely to see more of them soon.
“Bridges and hubs are transforming: they see the data sent to them, and then they transform it from one environment to another,” said Google’s Poe. “The router only “routes” the data. It doesn’t convert or even see the packet it’s transmitting.”
Thread is also a mesh network and you can have multiple Thread edge routers in your home to strengthen the network. If one person stops working, another person can fill the vacancy. Currently, this is not the case if your Zigbee or Z-Wave bridge or hub stops working.
This will depend on the manufacturer. Many have indicated that some or all of their existing compatible products will be upgraded to Matter. How this happens depends on the device.
If the product depends on a bridge or hub, the device can receive firmware updates over the air and migrate all lights and devices connected to it to Matter. Alternatively, the company may decide to release a new bridge or gateway to bring existing equipment to Matter.
“Upgradeable or new Matter-compliant gateways will allow Z-Wave and Zigbee devices to be recognized as Matter devices,” said Mitchell Klein of the Z-Wave Alliance. “It’s not just existing equipment in people’s homes, but all of the equipment is still on store shelves and in manufacturers’ warehouses.”
It is also possible that we will see Matter bridges released that will be able to relay messages from multiple ecosystems. Silicon Labs has developed the Unify SDK, a software and hardware solution for connecting Zigbee and Z-Wave to Matter. This “bridge” doesn’t have to be just another little white box, Klein says, but can be built into devices like thermostats. Infineon has released several Matter SoC solutions to device manufacturers, and other chip makers have followed suit.
Some individual devices require hardware changes to be compatible with Matter. Eve’s smart plugs and Yale’s locks are two examples: Yale uses pluggable modules for its locks, and Eve adds Thread radios to many of its devices. However, Matter works over Wi-Fi and Thread, so some products can only be updated using an over-the-air update.
Amazon and Google have already indicated that their existing smart speakers and displays will be upgraded in this way, and now that the final specs have been released, we should learn more about the other companies’ plans.
Yes. That’s the point. If the device is used with Matter, it will have the Matter logo (looks like a stickman in a bikini bottom). This is your logo and it will work in your smart home.
Another promise is easy setup. Important devices will connect directly to your smartphone – no app required, as Google demonstrated this week. Apple and Samsung are also planning to implement this on their smartphones and tablets. Once the device is paired with your Matter network, you can choose which app to use to manage it.
Yes and no. All Matter devices can be used with all controller applications because Matter has what is known as multi-admin control built into it. They can also be controlled by multiple controllers. But the device may not be able to access all of its features through the app.
For example, Matter will not support more advanced features at launch, such as smart plug power consumption monitoring or sophisticated scene control for smart lighting. So if you want to set up energy monitoring or have your colored smart lights flash your football team colors, you’ll need to use your device’s app or an app that supports the features you need. At least for now.
It depends on what each ecosystem allows, but Amazon, Apple, and Google have publicly stated that they will fully integrate with Matter. Samsung is not entirely sure. “In the Google Home app, Matter devices will sit side by side and work alongside devices you’ve already connected through the Works with Google app,” confirms Poe.
From day one, Matter’s biggest benefit has been managing multiple administrators – you can use any app, any ecosystem to manage any device, including voice control with any voice assistant. But this requires permission from each Matter Controller manufacturer.
“It depends on how different product manufacturers and platforms decide to integrate the Matter protocol,” said Google’s Poe. “We are fully committed to Matter. That’s why we’re updating the [new] Nest thermostat as a Matter device. If other companies decide to implement the functionality of the microcontroller in their device, the Matter controller will control it.”
So, if Amazon, Apple, and Google have it turned on, then yes – you can ask Siri to control your Nest thermostat and turn on your Fire TV – if you live in one of those crazy Frankenstein houses. But it’s still a big “if”.
There will be no Matter branded app. Instead, you will choose a platform to launch your Matter homepage. This could be Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, or another ecosystem or app that hasn’t been advertised as a Matter Controller.
All of these companies will compete for you to use their apps by offering a better or different experience. “Matter provides general controls, but there are custom features beyond that,” Poe said. “The ecosystem will need new ways to showcase the benefits of its user experience. New features powered by Matter.” It’s the smarter, more functional home we’re talking about first.
But since all Matter devices speak the same language, you should be able to use them in different ecosystems at the same time or switch between platforms at will. It is not clear how these “flows” will occur. And, if smart home companies are like cell phone operators, there can be obstacles on the one hand, and many incentives on the other. The key here is that you are no longer locked into one smart home ecosystem, which can only be a good thing.
Both. Matter is a big change for the smart home, which has already made a lot of big promises. But judging by the number of delays, this is also a huge challenge. CSA’s Almond-Freeman emphasized to me that Matter’s original vision is still there – in terms of the smart home revolution. But she said there is still a lot of work to be done, and the release of Matter 1.0 is just the beginning.
Post time: Nov-14-2022