What is Matter? How the connectivity standard can change your smart home

Matter has received much attention in the Internet of Things (IoT) arena since its announcement in late 2019. The CSA, the organization behind the creation of Matter and Zigbee, wants to make it the new connectivity standard for smart homes.

Since smart home devices and hubs started appearing on the market, the lack of compatibility between brands and devices has been a big problem. For years, you had to choose your home automation systems carefully, or you might not have compatible devices and have to juggle multiple apps to control your home.

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The CSA aims to change that situation with Matter. This standard could diminish interoperability woes and erase the need for the tinkering involved in connecting incompatible devices to an automation system. 

Tech companies got involved quickly. Apple’s Corey Wang, a producer in Human Interface Design, mentioned Matter during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2022), pointing out the need to have more compatibility across brands in smart home devices for a truly connected home. Google added Matter-over-Thread support for its smart home hubs with Thread built-in. In 2021, Amazon announced that almost all Echo devices would support Matter and later made OTA updates to existing devices.

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Since then, many other tech companies have launched smart home devices with Matter support, including Eve, Switchbot, Aqara, Govee, Roborock, and others.