Matter’s latest version will try to smooth out the smart home platform’s rough edges
Matter 1.4 requires less user interaction and adds Matter-certified networking equipment.
The latest version of Matter, the open smart home standard that largely hasn’t yet lived up to its lofty promises for seamless device-agnostic integration, is now available. Hardware makers and platforms can integrate Matter 1.4 into their products on Thursday. The new version’s biggest feature may be Enhanced Multi-Admin, which aims to improve interoperability between different device ecosystems.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance, which manages Matter, describes version 1.4 as “a significant step forward in the Matter ecosystem.” It says the update resulted from the coalition’s hundreds of member companies (including Apple, Amazon, Google and Samsung) working with thousands of engineers and product experts. Given the platform’s struggles to deliver on its promise of a smooth and headache-free smart home, it could use all the help it can get.
One of the new highlights, Enhanced Multi-Admin, strives for less setup when connecting to multiple ecosystems (like Apple HomeKit, Google Home or Alexa). Matter 1.4 only requires user consent once. After that (at least in theory), new and existing devices will connect to multiple ecosystems without making you approve the same device for each additional platform. If hardware manufacturers implement the feature without issues (again, a big ask based on Matter’s rocky first two years), this could improve on a big pain point and move the platform’s big promises of seamless integration closer to reality.
The update also opens the door to Matter-certified routers and access points that securely store your Thread protocol credentials. The Alliance says the networking hardware will “provide the foundational infrastructure of smart homes by combining both a Wi-Fi access point and a Thread Border Router, ensuring these ubiquitous devices have the necessary infrastructure for Matter products using either of these technologies.”
Following the addition of basic energy management features in version 1.3, Matter 1.4 expands on that with support for new device types. Solar panels, batteries (including battery walls, storage units and Battery Energy Storage Systems), heat pumps and water heaters can now work with the standard. In addition, it now covers Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE). So, EV owners can use the management features to specify when they want their car to be charged, choosing times based on convenience or cost.
Matter 1.4 also adds protocols to lengthen battery life for low-powered devices like switches, buttons and sensors that only connect intermittently. More flexible automation options for products like in-wall switches that control lights, fans and other non-smart appliances are also on the menu. This addresses yet another pain point in previous versions, which treated all of these device types as “lights.”
