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

Matter has received plenty of attention in the Internet of Things (IoT) arena since its announcement in late 2019. The CSA, the organization that created Matter and Zigbee, wants to make Matter the 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, otherwise you might end up with incompatible devices and have to juggle multiple apps to control your home.

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The CSA aims to change this situation by having Matter diminish interoperability woes in home automation systems.

Tech companies have 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. In 2021, Amazon announced that almost all Echo devices would support Matter and later made OTA updates to existing devices. In 2022, Google added Matter-over-Thread support for its smart home hubs with Thread built-in.

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Many other tech companies have since launched smart home devices with Matter support, including Eve, Switchbot, Aqara, Govee, and Roborock.