Matter 1.2 is the latest version of an IoT connectivity standard aimed at making the smart home more unified and interoperable. It offers support for nine new types of connected devices, including large appliances, robot vacuums, smoke detectors and air purifiers. These devices will be able to communicate with various smart home platforms such as Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Samsung SmartThings and offer basic functions and notifications. Matter 1.2 represents a significant step forward for the industry-backed coalition of 675 member companies and opens the door to broader, smarter automation possibilities.
At the same time, the Home Connectivity Alliance (HCA), a rival Matter organization working to get major appliance manufacturers to connect and control their respective devices through their own apps, announced that its members will start introducing the HCA interface specification 1.0 will begin in the fourth quarter of 2023 and continue until 2024.
The smart home in its current form is a bit chaotic. Customers need to ensure that dedicated hubs can connect to the right devices and also decide which devices are right for their home based on the assistant and ecosystem they are already integrated into. Matter is a new interoperability protocol for the smart home, launched as part of a collaborative effort by a handful of key industry players.
It’s like not being able to switch between gaming consoles to play the same game, or being locked into one music streaming platform because of the library you create. Smart home is a more inviting battlefield than these areas, and that’s why these companies have decided to make the entire system simpler for both manufacturers and consumers. Matter therefore aims to be an interoperability protocol with standard data models that ensures that smart home devices can function in different ecosystems. So, hypothetically, an Amazon Echo Show display should be able to work just as seamlessly with a Google Nest doorbell as it does with, say, its own Ring offerings.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the organization behind Matter, released the Matter 1.2 specification on October 23, a year after the launch of Matter 1.0, fulfilling its promise to release two updates per year. Now device manufacturers can add Matter support to their devices, and ecosystems like Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Samsung SmartThings can start supporting the new device types.
Matter 1.2 is an IOT connectivity standard that facilitates communication between smart home devices. This version allows you to manage devices such as robot vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines, smoke detectors, air purifiers and air quality sensors through the Apple Home app or other similar platforms. Basic controls, notifications and alerts for these devices are accessible, but there are still gaps, such as the lack of mapping for robot vacuum cleaners. A highlight of Matter 1.2 is support for air quality sensors that can send data from other devices to optimize indoor comfort.
Sent by THAT’S IT
The Alliance is pleased to announce that Matter’s second update, version 1.2, is now available for device manufacturers and platforms to integrate into their products. It includes nine new device types, revisions and additions to existing categories, fundamental improvements to the specification and SDK, and certification and testing tools. The Matter 1.2 certification program is now open and members expect these improvements and new device types to hit the market later this year and into 2024 and beyond.
Since releasing Matter 1.0 just over a year ago, we have seen real growth and progress, with over 24,600 downloads of the specification, 1,214 certifications, nearly 24% growth in the number of companies joining the Matter Working Group, and a new Alliance interoperability test facility.
Matter’s deployment was faster than the typical rollout cycles of previous industry standards. Instead of taking years to replace hub hardware, software updates enable hubs and smart home devices to become Matter controllers. This has created a global market with up to hundreds of millions of households ready to connect new Matter devices. Matter products are available from popular and innovative brands across all originally supported device categories, with products and apps in users’ homes, on their smartphones and tablets, and on store shelves. As users connect more and more Matter devices, member companies have been actively sharing their experiences and initial vulnerabilities and are continuing to make specification improvements to address them.
In April, Matter 1.1 made incremental improvements, meeting the Matter Working Group’s plan of two releases per year. This, coupled with the requirement for Matter certified products to offer over-the-air software updates, provides a reliable mechanism for adding new features, new device types, and significant improvements to the specification, tools, SDKs, and products in the market.
Support for nine new device types
We’re adding support for nine new device types in Matter 1.2, bringing new levels of interoperability, simplicity, reliability and security, while unlocking new use cases and capabilities for the future. New device types supported in Matter 1.2 include:
The device support added in Matter 1.2 gave the Matter working group a starting point for developing a set of core features – such as temperature setting and control, and status notifications – that will be applicable to almost all devices supported in future releases.
What do these new Matter devices mean for your smart home?
Most smart devices already offer most of the features supported by Matter, but these are isolated in each manufacturer’s app. With Matter, you should be able to connect it to the smart home platform of your choice, unlocking fascinating automation options.
Today, while it is possible to flash lights when laundry is done, turn on a red light when the refrigerator temperature rises, or turn off heating, ventilation and air conditioning when the smoke alarm goes off, the setup can be complicated and often unreliable.
The user has to download multiple apps, maybe buy a sensor or two, deal with tedious cloud integrations, and wonder if your washing machine is compatible with your smart home app. With Matter’s support, this type of simple command and control functionality should be much easier to implement in any ecosystem.
The future potential is also exciting as it brings into play the ambient smart home that many companies are aiming for, where devices can communicate with each other to take action on our behalf without us having to interfere.
Tobin Richardson, president and CEO of the CSA, gave this example: “With more aggregated data and more information, we can see more interactions between devices,” he said. When an air quality sensor detects something, your favorite voice assistant can trigger the robot vacuum, activate the air purifier, and possibly pause the laundry and dishwasher processes to save energy while other appliances work.
With manufacturers such as Whirlpool, Panasonic, LG, Haier (which owns GE Appliances) and many more being part of Matter, there is potential for widespread implementation in home appliances. Especially backwards compatibility. Personally, I don’t plan on buying new devices.
Whirlpool’s David Bean told me that the company plans to implement Matter across all of its brands’ connected products, including Whirlpool, KitchenAid and Maytag. “While the ability to receive notifications from your device in your smart home will be useful at first, for us it’s more about the possibilities that open up once we install Matter,” he explains. However, he did not specify when Whirlpool would incorporate Matter into any of its products. And while today there are only refrigerators, dishwashers and washing machines, we expect Matter to expand to the kitchen and laundry room, he says.
No more matter, but no new products
One of the benefits of Matter for manufacturers is that they can focus their efforts on products and features without having to support multiple protocols or ecosystems or even build an application. (If you’ve spent a lot of time with your dishwasher or coffee maker app, you know what a blessing this is). A device can interoperate with one or more Matter ecosystems simply by integrating Matter connectivity.
Provided smart home ecosystems support new types of devices. Matter does not need to support all device types, and while most are currently supported, not all support all features.
The addition of new device types should give Matter some much-needed momentum and address complaints from some smart home users who feel like it hasn’t yet added much to their experience other than the headaches. However, for this to be successful, manufacturers must integrate it into their products. Resistance to Matter’s takeover appears to be growing. A year later, companies that originally said they would keep an eye on adopting Matter still haven’t done so (Lutron is a notable example). Others who seemed to have jumped on the bandwagon from the start slowed their development or even stopped it altogether, drawing a line under Wemo.
Despite being a prominent member of Matter, Resideo has not yet adopted Matter into its products, such as the Honeywell Home T9 thermostat. It also owns one of the largest smoke detector companies, First Alert, and I would like to see better connectivity options for smoke detectors.
One of the problems is the inherent tension between Matter’s role in creating a level playing field – it removed interoperability as a barrier but also as a selling point. Companies now need to create enough differentiation to entice customers to choose them.
The Home Connectivity Alliance: a credible alternative
Matter also has competition. Resideo is very active in the Home Connectivity Alliance (HCA), a competing and potentially symbiotic organization with Matter that aims to get major device manufacturers to connect and control their respective devices through their own applications. It is widely used by major home appliance manufacturers including LG, Haier, Samsung and Electrolux. (Whirlpool is not a member; Bean told me he’s keeping a close eye on it). The HCA approach is more attractive to these companies because it keeps everything within the manufacturer’s proprietary ecosystems and maintains connection to the cloud, a valuable data funnel.
The Home Connectivity Alliance announced that its members will begin rolling out the HCA 1.0 interface specification in the fourth quarter of 2023 and continue through 2024. The HCA 1.0 interface specification provides a framework for cloud-to-cloud (C2C) interoperability and creates a foundation for tangible benefits to consumers, from integrating existing devices to creating future energy savings.
When HCA 1.0 interoperability comes to market, consumers will be able to control their smart devices through their existing appliance and HVAC applications, regardless of manufacturer. No special hub is required, but an update to the mobile app allows control of most smart home devices based on manufacturers’ deployment by product, region and market.
“It is exciting to see trusted brands from different parts of the world coming together to create an interoperable and more energy efficient smart home,” said Dr. Emir Lasic, Senior Analyst – Home Appliances at Omdia. HCA’s focus on major appliances, HVAC systems and televisions will provide consumers with simple, neutral and interoperable ways to control their home appliances with a single app. We look forward to bringing this technology to market.
“HCA member companies are taking a thoughtful approach to the interoperability of key everyday products already in our homes,” said Yoon Ho Choi, President of the Home Connectivity Alliance. I look forward to our member companies adopting the specification this year and HCA-compliant technologies becoming available to consumers in the near future.
It’s great to see HCA bring to market its first example of interoperability with global leaders in the appliance, HVAC and TV industries. It’s a testament to the commitment of the world’s leading appliance manufacturers to better serve our consumers in their homes.
We expect the smart home market to reach new heights by enabling our consumers to control multiple brands of appliances and HVAC products through SmartThings. Interoperability between world leaders will enable digital services that deliver new benefits to consumers. Samsung remains steadfast in its commitment to HCA and its vision,” said Chanwoo Park, Executive Vice President and Head of Service Biz Group of Device eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics.
Samsung is one of Matter’s biggest supporters with its smart home platform SmartThings, and LG played a key role in Matter’s development and standardization, according to Lee. However, if neither company expands their extensive offering of Matter-connected devices, they will stop the initiative before it even clears the first hurdle.
Sources: Connectivity Standards Alliance, Home Connectivity Alliance
And you ?
What do you think about the improvements in version 1.2 of the Matter specification?
What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of Matter compared to the Home Connectivity Alliance for consumers and manufacturers?
What do you think are the technical and organizational challenges to ensure interoperability between the different smart home devices and platforms?
What are the potential risks associated with the security, privacy and ethics of data generated by connected smart home devices?
Are you a connected objects user? What factors influence smart home adoption and user satisfaction?
See also:
Apple, Amazon and Google are joining forces in a new organization that proposes to define an open standard for smart home devices to make them more compatible
The Apple and Google-backed Matter smart home standard has been delayed, but the Connectivity Standards Alliance is now planning a launch for the first half of 2022