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This week at CES 2022, the tech industry’s annual mega-show, makers of smart-home products had a buzzword: “Matter.”
About two dozen companies showcased products that would be compatible with Matter, a new smart-home protocol that aims to enable devices to work with each other across different brands and systems. Exhibitors at CES 2022 showed they were on board with the new standard, which is backed by big-name brands like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Samsung. Matter is slated to be released this year, possibly the first half of 2022.
Matter will offer an open source connectivity standard so that smart-home devices can seamlessly integrate with one another. For example, Amazon announced new developer tools to make it easier for Alexa partners to support Matter. Google announced Fast Pair in showing its support for Matter. Other companies like GE Lighting, LG, Mui Labs, Nanoleaf, Sengled, Samsung’s SmartThings, and Belkin all showed products that will support the new standard.
Meanwhile, smart-home tech adoption continues to grow. About 66% of households have smart-home devices, according to data from Deloitte. But many consumers have multiple brands of smart-home products inside their homes instead of just one. For example, homeowners may have a smart doorbell and smart lighting from different brands. Matter sets out to fix the fragmented smart-home market. It’s basically the infrastructure to allow more devices to communicate with one another.
“At a fundamental level, our job is to eliminate fragmentation and help companies to grow in a way that is highly valuable to consumers,” Michelle Mindala-Freeman, vice president of market for the Connectivity Standards Alliance, told TechCrunch. “Standards like Matter do that, and we believe it is a rising tide that raises all boats.”