Matter, the New Smart Home Protocol

Updated on April 4th, 2023

Why Should You Know About Matter, the New Smart Home Innovation

Matter is a new smart home protocol that is soon going to be adopted by all smart home devices. It is essential that you know about this protocols it will change the way your smart home gadgets function. Your commands will now be executed much more faster and the setup will be much simpler than before.

So who came up with it you ask?!

The Birth of Matter
Smart home devices have evolved over time with technology making gadgets like Amazon Alexa a standard. While these devices were packed with features, the idea of smart home was not as developed as tech community had hoped. There were many hurdles to a fully connected smart home like setup, multi platform problem, etc. Tech companies and IoT manufacturers decided that they have to work together to solve these hurdles. Thus, Matter was born.

Matter was first developed by a number of tech giants including Amazon, Google, Apple, Samsung SmartThings, and Comcast. Now there over 280 companies working on this protocol. These companies have come together to form Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA). The protocol was officially launched on the November 3 and is already compatible with multiple apps including Alexa app, Google Home app, Apple Home app, etc.

Smart home gadget makers are also rolling out gadgets built on Matter. Eve, a smart gadget company, was first to roll out Matter certified devices including sensors and smart plugs.

Matter to the Rescue
Matter is a universal connectivity standard designed to make smart homes more simpler. The secret ingredient in the making of Matter is the technology called Thread. To understand the concept od Thread you need to first know that the most important problem faced by smart home technology was a way to securely and easily connect all devices in a home.

Similar to CSA another alliance called the Thread Group came up with an IPv6-based wireless protocol that could build “a secure, robust, reliable, and simple-to-use network.” This wireless protocol is uniquely tailored to IoT devices to help them work faster and communicate seamlessly using less power.

What is most noteworthy about Thread is that it can let all the smart home devices talk to each other directly without a middleman unlike the old times when you needed a central hub for interconnectivity. The technology can also allow your smart home devices be connected to any other IP-based device, such as smartphones, tablets, computers, and Wi-Fi routers.

In the words of Jonathan Hui, Vice President of technology for Thread, “Thread was designed for devices that just want to sleep for a long time, wake up, send a single packet, and then go back to sleep and preserve battery for as long as possible.”

Matter Can Work Without Internet Too
All Matter certified devices can run locally in your home without an internet connection to work or to talk to each other. Another achievement for the fractured smart home world! However, if you need out of home control, then internet connectivity and integration with cloud services is mandatory.

Matter Controller
There is a controller to add and control your Matter device at home. These can be any gadget in your house including smart speakers, voice assistants, apps, or hubs with apps. The duty of the controller is to manage communications, control, and automations.

Matter is designed to include devices already in our homes. Most devices will be upgraded to the Matter standard according to media reports.

More to read:

Everything About Matter Smart Home Standard Explained