Here’s What the ‘Matter’ Smart Home Standard Is All About

This open source protocol ensures your devices play nicely. As Matter 1.2 rolls out, here's what's changing in the smart home scene.

The ideal smart home seamlessly anticipates your needs and instantly responds to commands. You shouldn’t have to open a specific app for each appliance or remember the precise voice command and voice assistant combination that starts the latest episode of your favorite podcast on the nearest speaker. Competing smart home standards make operating your devices needlessly complicated. It’s just not very … well, smart.

Tech giants try to straddle standards by offering their voice assistants as a controlling layer on top, but Alexa can’t talk to Google Assistant or Siri or control Google or Apple devices, and vice versa. (And so far, no single ecosystem has created all the best devices.) But these interoperability woes may soon be remedied. Formerly called Project CHIP (Connected Home over IP), the open source interoperability standard known as Matter arrived in 2022. With some of the biggest tech names, like Amazon, Apple, and Google, on board, seamless integration may finally be within reach.

Updated October 2023: Added news of the Matter 1.2 specification release, what you need to use Matter, and our impressions of Matter devices so far.

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Table of Contents

• What Is Matter?
• What Makes Matter Different?
• When Will Matter Arrive?
• What About Other Smart Home Standards?
• What Devices Does Matter Work With?
• How Do Smart Home Hubs Fit In?
• What Do I Need to Use Matter?
• What About Security and Privacy?
• Will Manufacturers and Platforms Limit Functionality?
• Will Matter Succeed?

Matter enables different devices and ecosystems to play nicely. Device manufacturers must comply with the Matter standard to ensure their devices are compatible with smart home and voice services such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, and others. For folks building a smart home, Matter theoretically lets you buy any device and use the voice assistant or platform you prefer to control it (yes, you can use different voice assistants to talk to the same product).

For example, you can buy a Matter-supported smart bulb and set it up with Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, or Amazon Alexa—without having to worry about compatibility. Right now, some devices already support multiple platforms (like Alexa or Google Assistant), but Matter will expand that platform support and make setting up your new devices faster and easier.

The first protocol runs on Wi-Fi and Thread network layers and uses Bluetooth Low Energy for device setup. While it supports various platforms, you must choose the voice assistants and apps you want to use—there is no central Matter app or assistant. Because Matter works on your local network, you can expect your smart home devices to be more responsive to you, and they should continue to work even when your internet goes down.

The Connectivity Standards Alliance (or CSA, formerly the Zigbee Alliance) maintains the Matter standard. What sets it apart is the breadth of its membership (more than 550 tech companies), the willingness to adopt and merge disparate technologies, and the fact that it is an open source project. Interested companies can use the software development kit (SDK) royalty-free to incorporate their devices into the Matter ecosystem. This is much simpler than certifying devices individually with each smart home platform.

Growing out of the Zigbee Alliance gives Matter a firm foundation. Bringing the main smart home platforms (Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings) to the same table is an achievement. It is optimistic to imagine a seamless adoption of Matter across the board, but it has enjoyed a rush of enthusiasm with many smart home brands jumping aboard, including August, Schlage, and Yale in smart locks; Belkin, Cync, GE Lighting, Sengled, Signify (Philips Hue), and Nanoleaf in smart lighting; and others like Arlo, Comcast, Eve, TP-Link, and LG.

Matter has been in the works for years. The first release was due in late 2020, but it was delayed to the following year, rebranded as Matter, and then touted for a summer release. After another delay, the Matter 1.0 specification and certification program opened in 2022. The SDK, tools, and test cases were made available, and eight authorized test labs opened for product certification.

The first wave of Matter-supported smart home gadgets went on sale in the fall of 2022, and we have seen a steady trickle since then. The first update to the specification, Matter 1.1, arrived in May 2023 and consisted largely of bug fixes. Announced in October 2023, Matter 1.2 added support for nine new device types, including refrigerators, robot vacuums, and air purifiers, alongside improvements to existing categories.

The road to smart home nirvana is paved with different standards, like Zigbee, Z-Wave, Samsung SmartThings, Wi-Fi HaLow, and Insteon, to name a few. These protocols and others will continue to exist and operate. Google has merged its Thread and Weave technologies into Matter. The standard also employs Wi-Fi and Ethernet standards and uses Bluetooth LE for device setup.

Matter is not a single technology and should evolve and improve over time. It won’t cover every possible use case for every device and scenario, so other standards will continue to develop. The more platforms and standards merge with Matter, the greater its potential to succeed, but the challenge of making it all work seamlessly also grows.

Some devices will work with Matter after a firmware update. Others won’t ever be compatible. There’s no simple answer here. Many devices that currently work with Thread, Z-Wave, or Zigbee should be able to work with Matter, but it’s not a given that they will get upgrades. It is best to check with manufacturers about specific devices and future support. According to the Alliance, 1,214 devices have passed certification as of October 2023, though not all are available to buy yet. Look for the Matter logo to find compatible devices.

The first specification, or Matter 1.0, only covered certain categories of devices, including:

• Light bulbs and switches
• Smart plugs
• Smart locks
• Safety and security sensors
• Media devices including TVs
• Smart blinds and shades
• Garage door controllers
• Thermostats
• HVAC controllers

With Matter 1.2, nine new categories were added to the list:

• Refrigerators
• Room air conditioners
• Dishwashers
• Laundry washers
• Robotic vacuums
• Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms
• Air quality sensors
• Air purifiers
• Fans

We expect home security cameras, energy management, and EV charging to come in 2024.

To achieve compatibility with Matter, some brands, like Philips Hue, Aqara, and SwitchBot, have updated their hubs or bridges. This is one way to sidestep the problem of incompatible older hardware. Updating hubs to work with the new Matter standard enables you to connect older systems, which will demonstrate that standards can coexist. But getting the full potential benefit of Matter will often require new hardware.

The underlying Thread technology in Matter allows devices, like smart speakers or lights, to act as Thread routers and create a mesh network that can pass data, increasing range and reliability. Unlike traditional smart home hubs, these Thread routers can’t see inside the packets of data they exchange. Data can be sent securely end-to-end by a network of devices from different manufacturers.

You need a Matter controller and a smart home platform app to use Matter. Any Matter controller can control any Matter device, and you can pick the smart home platform app that suits you best. You likely already have a Matter controller, since most of the smart speakers, displays, and hubs from major players like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung are also Matter controllers. The Matter standard is also built into Android and iOS, so you can use smartphones and tablets to control your Matter devices.

For the best experience with Matter, you need a Thread border router. Some devices are both Matter controllers and Thread border routers, including:

• Amazon Echo (4th Gen)
• Amazon Eero 6, 6 Plus, Pro 6, Pro 6E, PoE 6, and PoE Gateway
• Apple HomePod (2nd Gen)
• Apple HomePod Mini
• Apple TV 4K (2nd Gen and 3rd Gen with Wi-Fi + Ethernet)
• Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen)
• Google Nest Hub Max
• Google Nest Wifi and Nest Wifi Pro
• Samsung SmartThings Station, Hub v3, and Hub Dongle
• Samsung Smart TVs (CU8000, CU7000, MNA89MS1BA, NEO QLED 8K and 4K)

Fears about security and privacy have cropped up frequently on the smart home scene. Matter is designed to be secure. The CSA has published a set of security and privacy principles and plans to use distributed ledger technology and Public Key Infrastructure to validate devices. This should ensure folks are connecting authentic, certified, and up-to-date devices to their homes and networks. Data collection and sharing will still be between you and the device manufacturer or platform provider.

Where before you had a single hub to secure, Matter devices will mostly connect directly to the internet. That makes them potentially more susceptible to hackers and malware. But Matter also provides for local control, so the command from your phone or smart display doesn’t have to go through a cloud server. It can pass directly to the device on your home network.

While the big platform providers can see the benefit in a common standard, they are not going to open up full control of their devices to their competitors. There is a gap between the walled garden ecosystem experience and Matter functionality. So far, Matter functionality is limited, and manufacturers are keeping certain features proprietary.

For example, you may be able to turn an Apple device on or off with a Google Assistant voice command, but you will have to use Siri or an Apple app to tweak some settings or access advanced features. Manufacturers signing up to Matter are under no obligation to implement the entire specification, so the extent of support is likely to be mixed.

Matter is presented as a smart home panacea, but only time will tell. Few, if any, innovations get everything right out of the gate. But there is potential value in seeing a Matter logo on a device and knowing it will work with your existing smart home setup, particularly in households with iPhones, Android phones, and Alexa devices. The freedom to be able to mix and match your devices and voice assistants is enticing.

The reality is sadly falling somewhat short of the promise so far. Setup of Matter devices is easy, but there are issues with multiple Thread networks, and we have experienced glitches when trying to use more than one platform simultaneously to control devices. No one wants to have to select devices based on compatibility. We want to choose devices with the best feature set, the highest quality, and the most desirable designs. Matter is slowly making that easier, but it still has a way to go.

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