Well, Indesign, LLC will tell you what’s the “Matter”. But first, let us ask a question. Have you felt the pain of trying to get your smart home devices from different manufacturers to play nice with each other? We sure have!
Help Is On The Way
Thankfully, there is an organization called the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA). In May of 2021, the Zigbee Alliance rebranded its organization to CSA. CSA is made up of over a hundred device manufacturers. This includes companies like Google, Samsung, Amazon, and Apple. CSA has committed to the creation, maintaining, and delivering of standards for the Internet of Things (IoT).
In 2019 these companies worked together to develop the Project Connected Home over IP (Project CHIP). In May of this year, Project CHIP was rebranded as Matter.
Simply put, devices with the Matter logo will be certified to ensure interoperability with each other. You should be able to purchase a device and have it work with the voice assistant of your choosing, including Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Google Assistant. Amazon has said that its Echo speakers and smart displays will soon support Matter. Google and Apple have announced their support for Matter with Android and iOS.
A big question is – will your current smart home devices work with Matter? No one knows for sure, but some devices should work with Matter after some kind of firmware upgrade. And that may be limited to products that have only been around a year or two. Of course, there will be devices that will simply not work.
There has been a delay in the final specification until the first half of 2022. New smart home devices that support Matter will likely be delayed until the second half of 2022.
Will Matter live up to its promise? We can only hope, but networking smart home devices has taken a huge step in the right direction.
Now you know What’s the Matter!
Indesign
For any questions or to begin the process of developing a product, contact us today at (317) 377-5450! We proudly offer our clients product development services along with electrical design, software design, project management, and much more!