Matter will let smart home tech play nice

Amazon announced last month that it’s committing almost all of its Echo speakers to support Matter, an industry standard meant to make smart home technology cross-compatible.

• The only Echo speakers that wouldn’t see the upgrade are some first-gen speakers.
• In addition to Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung SmartThings, and over 170 other companies are collaborating on Matter.

Why this...Matters

Matter is looking to tackle one of the biggest issues in smart home technology: compatibility. A key step to tackling that is getting the most influential players on board—and that’s now done.

• There isn’t a concrete timeline for when Matter will roll out, but it is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2021.

Matter leverages wi-fi, Thread, and Bluetooth Low Energy to create its network layers, which allows users to connect and use their devices seamlessly. For instance, in a Matter-ified world, your new smart light system will work whether you have Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant.

• Wi-fi will be used for high-bandwidth data transfers like streaming video.
• Bluetooth LE will be used to set up higher bandwidth devices like HomePods and security cameras.
• Thread, a mesh networking protocol, will be used for low-bandwidth device setup for things like motion sensors.

Bottom line: Amazon’s move is a signal that Matter is here to stay, and the current reality of spotty interoperability could soon be a thing of the past.—JM