Matter Is Embraced at CES 2023: What This Means for Your Smart Home
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe Matter protocol made a big splash at CES 2023, with many companies adopting the standard. Here’s why you should care.
With CES 2023 now behind us, it’s safe to say that the recently launched Matter protocol was among the hottest topics at this year’s show. It’s uncommon for tech powerhouses like Google, Apple, and Amazon to unite, so when they do, we pay attention.
Let’s look more closely at what Matter actually is, the impact it made at CES 2023, and what it means for your current and future smart home configuration.
What Is Matter and Why Should You Care?
As smart home automation gained popularity over the last decade, the lack of unification across devices and brands quickly became the industry’s Achilles heel. You have to buy into an ecosystem, like Amazon Alexa or Google Home, and then stick with it. If you don’t, you’ll encounter compatibility issues, which makes it cumbersome and frustrating to build out your ideal smart home setup.
To overcome this issue, Apple, Google, and Amazon joined forces with the Connectivity Standards Alliance (formerly Zigbee Alliance) to create Matter (formerly CHIP), a standardized smart home protocol. Now, hundreds of businesses like Samsung, LG, and Huawei are on board.
Matter 1.0 released in November 2022. It works as a common language spoken by smart devices across manufacturers, allowing devices to communicate directly with each other via your local network, without the need for intermediary cloud-based apps.
The integration of Matter by device makers should make smart home set up more straightforward and reliable. It gives you freedom to shop for the latest smart devices you want to integrate, regardless of the platform you first adopted. That’s why we were so excited to see Matter play an important role at CES 2023.
What We Learned at CES 2023
At CES 2023, tech companies demonstrated their commitment to adopting Matter.
Amazon announced a full rollout by spring 2023, bringing Matter to new Echo products and pushing over-the-air updates to most existing Echo devices as well. Additionally, support will be extended to a wider array of connected devices like thermostats, light bulbs, and smart plugs.
Samsung had several exciting developments. It showed off its new SmartThings Station—a Matter controller that is also a wireless charging mat. Additionally, all of its 2022 smart TVs will be updated to become Matter controllers in March, with new Samsung devices in 2023 and beyond coming with Matter as standard.
Leviton, a longtime manufacturer of light switches, announced that it will push a firmware update to add Matter to its full line of Wi-Fi enabled plugs and switches later this year.
Popular smart lighting maker Yeelight introduced its new Matter-certified smart lamp, as well as Matter support for its existing Pro range.
TP-Link introduced its upcoming hub, the Homebase Tapo H900. It’s a Matter controller that also supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and works with Tapo’s smart home products like cameras, light bulbs, and plugs. It also serves as a local video storage device for the cameras. No release date or pricing information has been announced.
Will Matter Catch On? Time Will Tell
Not all manufacturers and product lines will offer Matter support, at least not for now. Notably, while GE Lighting announced Matter integration for its new smart bulbs and plugs, it has no plans to update existing products due to compatibility issues.
Schlage, the lock manufacturer, is taking a more cautious approach to adopting Matter. Representatives speaking to The Verge were noncommittal, saying that while the company might be developing Matter-supported products, it intends to wait and see how Matter plays out before bringing anything to market. Caution is perhaps understandable from a home security business, which needs to preserve the level of security it offers.
As the rollout of new Matter-enabled devices and existing device upgrades continues, we’ll find out how well the Matter standard will really work. If the protocol is smoothly rolled out to most existing devices over-the-air, it’ll be a game changer for the smart home industry.
Reference: https://www.makeuseof.com/matter-at-ces-2023/
Ref: makeuseof
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