In the last couple of years, almost every well known manufacturer has come out with their own version of smart home platforms. Most devices work across multiple platforms after 2019 due to Project Connected Home over IP (Project CHIP) alliance.
The alliance made it mandatory to create an open source standard. According to the latest news, the alliance has now been renamed to Matter. Matter is simply a unified system that will allow you to use your smart home devices with any assistant of your choice.
For example, most products work wither with Google Assistant, or with Amazon Alexa, or Apple Homekit, but Matter-branded products can be configured together.
Back in 2019, the alliance had Google, Amazon, Apple, Samsung, Ikea, and Philips Hue as board members. Products like light bulbs, smart plugs, door locks, sensors, detectors, TVs, window blinds, thermostats, air conditioners, etc. where covered in 2019’s alliance. Now, the unified platform will work through Bluetooth Low Energy, Ethernet Wi-Fi, and Thread.
Matter will come with a logo so from now on, buyers have to look out for the logo when they make their next smart home device purchase. As per reports, some manufacturers like Philips Hue will release an update that make all of its past and present products compatible with Matter.
It should be noted that Zigbee Alliance, the owner of the Zigbee protocol which is used by several IoT devices has also announced that it is going to change its name to the Connectivity Standards Alliance as it wishes to focus on projects similar to Matter.
Reports suggest, the first Matter branded devices will ship by the end of this year.
