đŸ€ĄGuys, What is the Smart Home standard Matter ❗❗🙄

Review 270: 22.12.2021 at 05:00 pm

đŸ€Ą The Matter smart home standard promises to solve a lot of problems that meet users of smart home devices. And it seems that he is able to solve it after the support of many giant technology companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple and Samsung.

The list of companies that decided to support the standard includes many manufacturers of smart devices such as LG as well as accessories for home appliances.

The Matter standard aims to standardize the language that smart home devices speak to each other. This means having all devices communicate with each other regardless of their manufacturer or the platform you use to control them.

Thus, you can get smart home devices from more than one company without fearing the compatibility of these devices with each other. That means you get a Samsung Smart TV with LG Smart Fridge and NanoLeaf Smart Bulbs and then control them all with your iPhone.

However, it is difficult to determine the effectiveness of this standard as it has not yet been launched, with companies planning to launch it in the middle of 2022.

Smart home platforms that support the Matter standard:

The Big Four are committed to supporting the new Matter smart home standard, which means you can control it across platforms:

Alexa from Amazon.
Google smart home.
HomeKit from Apple.
Samsung Smart Things platform.

And you can control it through the applications of these platforms or through their smart devices from smart speakers or smart screens.

The list of platforms that support this standard is still growing, and it is sufficient for the four large companies to support this standard so that you can easily use it.

The standard aims to standardize the ways to control and use smart home devices across more than one phone or control platform.

This means you can control Amazon’s new thermostat using Google Assistant and Siri. You can also use these assistants together across two different devices to control the same smart home devices.

The Matter standard is not a tool for managing smart home devices, but rather a standard for communication between these devices and their control platforms of any kind.

The way different platforms support Matter for smart home management and control is different, and the following companies have decided to support the standard as follows:

Alexa from Amazon:

Amazon promises to upgrade its fourth generation Echo amplifier to act as a signal converter to the Matter standard, converting the wireless internet signal into a signal that works with the Matter standard.

And Chris DeCenzo, the chief engineer at one of Amazon’s labs, expects that the company will upgrade all of its speakers and hardware to support the Matter standard in the coming days, either through a software or hardware upgrade suitable for the new standard.

So Amazon smart speakers are able to control all your smart home devices whatever network standard you’re using as long as they support Matter.

The company also promises to work with developers to develop new products and software that work with the Matte standard and make it easier to use via Alexa.

Google’s Nest platform

Google promises to upgrade all its devices and smart speakers to work with the Matter standard well and without any problems.

It allows all modern devices that support the Thread protocol to be used as broadband routers for the Matter standard.

The company aims to make a large part of its products compatible with the new Matter standard, regardless of device components and communication protocols.

Google promised to support developers who want to work with the Matter standard through its developer package, and it also intends to update its phones to better support the matter standard.

Apple’s HomeKit platform

Apple joined the list of companies that intend to support the Matter standard for smart home control, and intend to use their home devices as a broad-range signal converter to greatly increase the control range of the standard.

The company also said it supports the standard programmatically via its smart home management app as well as Siri. All software compatible with Apple’s smart home management app will be upgraded to work with the Matter standard directly without developer intervention.

Samsung SmartThings platform

Samsung promises to upgrade all of its smart devices to support Matter as the new standard for connectivity and control of its devices.

These devices include all smart devices manufactured by Samsung, from smartphones to refrigerators and smart home appliances.

The company has not yet clarified its plan to fully support the standard and benefit from it, or whether it supports it as a broad-based broadcast hub or not.

Matter-enabled smart home devices

There are no devices officially sold with pre-support for the Matter standard, as the standard has not yet launched and you must wait for its official release to get these devices.

But a lot of companies have upgraded their products and pre-existing smart home devices in order to work well with the Matter standard.

But in general, most smart home devices that use the Thread protocol are able to support the Matter standard.

The standard is not limited to these devices only, as devices that do not use the Thread protocol can support the standard over wireless Internet.

When the Matter standard becomes official, devices that support it will have the standard logo on it as you can see in the image below.

The first version of the Matter standard supports the following devices:

Smart Light Bulbs and Controllers
Smart power sockets of all kinds
All kinds of smart door locks
thermostats
smart blinds
Smart home security devices from motion sensors or smoke sensors
smart garage door hardware
Smart TV and broadcast TV devices of all kinds
Smart wireless internet devices and signal boosters
The International Communication Standards Association promises to add more devices in the next versions of the standard, and says that work on these versions has already begun.

Matter 1.1 is also likely to support smart refrigerators and large smart home appliances, as well as electric cars and smart energy management solutions.

Is Matter Standard Safe

It gets serious when it comes to securing smart home devices, and no one wants their smart fridge or smart TV to be hacked.

The risks of privacy and hacking in smart home devices are more severe and dangerous than the risks of hacking into the usual digital devices such as phones or computers.

As a result, Matter is taking serious and rapid steps to protect and secure smart home devices.

The standard relies on a new method for securing and encrypting all communications in a way that no one is allowed to access them.

But this encryption includes communication and communication between smart home devices only, without the data collected by companies through these devices.

Each company must secure their devices individually, however Matter imposes a minimum security on them.

Many analysts are concerned about the way the Matter standard will deal with smart devices. It aims to connect these devices directly to the Internet.

This is the opposite of the method used to secure smart home devices. Where you connect it to one console and then lock that unit only without locking the rest of the smart devices.

But Matter works differently and against the idea of ​​a single console, making all devices act as a console.

Although the company promises to secure the standard and takes great care of its security, it remains theoretical until the devices are released and extensively tested.

Do I need to replace existing smart home appliances?

The Matter standard has been developed from the ground up to work well and is compatible with all existing smart home devices.

As a result, smart home devices that have the right hardware to use the Matter standard will be upgraded to it.

But it gets more complicated when it comes to slightly older devices, as these devices use bridges to connect to the Internet.

Companies must manually upgrade these bridges’ hardware to be able to work with the Matter standard.

Some companies have already started upgrading their own devices to work with the new standard properly, but as we said it becomes more difficult the older the device.

But it is assumed that all new devices developed by companies even before the official release of the standard has become compatible with it.

As a result, you can buy these devices now without waiting for the official launch of the matter standard next year.

When can I buy smart home devices that support the Matter standard?

All tech companies interested in making smart home devices say you can buy new devices safely and that they support the Matter standard.

But these devices must support Thread or have the hardware to support it, and these are the devices you should look for first.

Then you can buy devices that have a clear wireless Internet connection, as the standard supports these devices as well.

But if you are considering buying a device that does not support these two things, it means that your device may not be updated to the Matter standard.

You can start preparing your smart home from now on to the Matter standard by purchasing broadband routers that increase network coverage.

And you can get these devices from various technical companies such as Apple and other companies that have already started supporting them.

đŸ€Ą See you soon guys.😎✌

Written by:

Otto M Yassine

CEO of OTTO Magazine

Whatsapp: +212691595123