The Connectivity Standards Alliance, formerly known as Zigbee Alliance has announced the launch of a new connectivity standard called “Matter” for smart home devices. Backed by the three tech giants viz. Apple, Amazon, and Google, the Connectivity Standards Alliance has unveiled Matter as a new interoperable and secure connectivity standard. To remind you, the new standard was formerly known as “Project Connected Home over IP” or “Project CHIP,” which is essentially a unified IP-based connectivity protocol that will be used to build and connect IoT ecosystems.
As per the report from CNET, Matter is a royalty-free connectivity standard and has been made available to view on GitHub. While it enables communication between a wide range of smart devices, it will also serve as a seal of approval to ensure that devices and items built on this standard are secure, reliable, and able to work together. So to get Matter’s certification, the device/item/product needs to adopt the new royalty-free standard that makes it compatible with Apple’s HomeKit, Amazon’s Alexa Smart Home, and Google’s Weave protocols.
Matter-certified Devices Could Come as Early as 2021
The new royalty-free connectivity standard from Apple, Amazon, and Google-backed Connectivity Standards Alliance will embrace devices such as smart light bulbs, smart speakers, door locks, video doorbells, and more. The devices receiving Matter certification will make sure they work with each other and are compatible with smart home and virtual assistant services. So consumers are less likely to have trouble getting the hardware to communicate with other items in their existing smart home setup. Another good thing is that this includes support for existing network technologies, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, Ethernet, and Thread.
As per Michelle Mindala-Freeman, the head of marketing at Matter, the compatible accessories will have setup codes that will allow users to easily pair them on any platform. Moreover, every device certified by Matter will have a unique logo to indicate that it works with Amazon, Apple, and Google ecosystems. According to the report, the first Matter-certified accessories should come as early as late 2021. However, there is no detailed schedule as to when the products from this alliance will hit the markets.
