Matter finally starting to fulfill its promise is great news for your smart home

From its inception, Matter promised to take the disparate walled gardens of smart home technology and unite them under a single protocol. Its purpose was to allow different ecosystems to interact with one another; for example, an Alexa-specific device could work with Google Home and vice versa. The protocol was first launched in 2019 under the name Connected Home over IP (CHIP), but rebranded in 2021 to Matter.

At the same time as the Matter rebrand, the Zigbee Alliance — one of the initial members of the collaboration alongside Amazon, Apple, Google, and Samsung — renamed itself to the Connectivity Standards Alliance, or CSA. The CSA intended for Matter to launch in 2020, but numerous delays pushed the launch back to late 2021, and then later to the fall of 2022, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the primary culprit.

Matter version 1.0 officially went live in October 2022 and introduced support for smart lights, thermostats, door locks, blinds, and several other types of devices. Useful, yes — but nothing at all like the benefits that had been hyped during its initial development. At the time of its launch, other smart home standards (namely Zigbee and Z-Wave) were far more widely supported. The majority of devices at that time were not Matter-compatible.

Of course, a wave of Matter-compatible products followed its launch, but that still meant many smart home users were stuck using incompatible devices or shelling out their hard-earned money for the new products. And because Matter was new and few people had hands-on experience with it, troubleshooting smart home difficulties was tricky at best.

Since that time, Matter has undergone several updates. Version 1.1 improved the initial release but added little in the way of features. Version 1.2 had more tangible benefits, including the addition of nine new device types. Version 1.3 added energy reporting functionality, as well as support for EV charging. Finally, version 1.4 added support for even more devices like solar panels and water heaters.

Each one of those updates brought Matter closer to its promised functionality, but it wasn’t until today, when Matter version 1.4.1 launched — its first “dot” release — that it made a substantial change to how users interact with devices. While considered a minor update by the CSA (hence the 1.4.1 designation), it strikes me as one of the most beneficial additions to Matter yet.

I have worked with smart home devices for a long time, and the previous history lesson was to illustrate that, while Matter holds a lot of potential, much of it hasn’t been realized yet. Today’s launch was the first step toward improvements that the average user will feel. Interoperability is fantastic — in fact, I’d argue that smart home technology would stagnate without it — but most people will just buy a device that works without understanding how Matter benefits them.

Version 1.4.1 introduced three new features that will directly impact everyday smart home users, especially when it comes to setting up new devices. Of these three, the ability to set up multiple devices at once by scanning a single QR code is perhaps the best feature. No longer will you be forced to crane your head like the Bent-Neck Lady just to scan the QR code on the side of your smart bulb, only to repeat the process several more times for each individual bulb. Instead, you can simply scan the packaging.

Another feature (officially called Onboarding Info in NFC Tag) lets you skip the whole QR code and instead set up a device simply by. holding your phone close to it. It uses near-field communication to establish a connection. Several manufacturers have used this technology for a while now, including LIFX and most Apple HomeKit devices, but it’s not widely adopted by the industry at large.

The final feature has the potential to change the way I approach my smart home on a day-to-day basis. When I need to set up a device, I use the manufacturer’s app. That way, I can agree to any terms and conditions and deal with issues as they arise, rather than trying to finagle my way through the setup from a hub app like Amazon Alexa or Google Home. The Enhanced Setup Flow (ESF) feature, according to the CSA, “supports the display of a manufacturer’s terms and conditions directly in the commissioner app.”

In other words, it is now possible to set up devices from a central location without opening another application. No more jumping between the Hue app and the Alexa app to figure out why one bulb in the living room doesn’t work; all the information is shared between the applications.

Of course, these benefits are reliant on these companies choosing to work together, but that’s a minor obstacle. More and more companies are joining the CSA in making products Matter-certified. The Connectivity Standards Alliance has more than 600 members, and even more companies work with the CSA even if they aren’t directly a part of it.

It’s taken around five years, but this small step forward reignited my excitement for Matter and what it can bring to the table.