In December, I wrote about the new smart home interoperability standard, Matter. You can read about it here. A short recap: Matter is supposed to connect all these different brands and their products to work together under one protocol. Here’s Connectivity Standards Alliance’s (CSA) little bit about the protocol:
Matter is built around a shared belief that smart home devices should be secure, reliable, and seamless to use. By building upon Internet Protocol (IP), Matter will enable communication across smart home devices, mobile app, and cloud services, and define a specific set of IP-based networking technologies for device certification.
It’s a pretty great idea, honestly. However, it’s been pushed again.
Matter, then called Project CHIP, was announced in 2019 and planned for a release in late 2020. The pandemic is likely the cause of the first push, which was to sometime in 2021. Then it was rebranded to Matter and pushed again to mid-2022. Now, it’s pushed to the fall of 2022.
The CSA posted a blog that the push is not a setback but an “extension to allow development for more platforms.”
This is what CSA says about Matter for consumers, developers, and retailers.
Consumers:
Matter is the seal of approval that says smart devices work reliably together—taking the guesswork out of the purchasing process. That trust allows you to choose from a wider range of the brands you love, and brings you the comfort of a secure and seamless connected home.
Developers:
Matter is a unifying, IP-based connectivity protocol built on proven technologies, helping you connect to and build reliable, secure IoT ecosystems, and keeping your focus on developing innovative products and accelerating paths to market.
Retailers:
Matter is the reliable IoT compatibility standard that drives category growth by simplifying the purchasing process, expanding the smart home category to more retailers, and lowering operational costs.
With new smart products being released regularly, Matter will become helpful to let you purchase any product from any brand without worrying if your system will be cohesive. Hopefully, the next time I post about this, it’ll be to share the release. You can see more on CSA’s website.