Amazon affirms its backing for Matter Leave a comment

Amazon has reaffirmed its support for the smart home networking standard Matter, saying today in a blog post that Matter will be supported over Thread in Echo devices and Eero Wi-Fi routers. Eero had previously said that it supported the standard. According to Amazon, the news “further expands Amazon’s commitment to Matter while strengthening its smart home philosophy of flexibility, privacy, cooperation, and interoperability.”

The matter is an IP-based application protocol that will create a standardized language and interaction model for smart home devices and ecosystems. Alexa users should be able to connect any Matter-enabled smart home device to their Echo smart speakers and control them using the Alexa app and Alexa voice control now that Echo devices support Matter over Thread and Wi-Fi.

Amazon, for example, mentioned Eve in a list of firms with which it is collaborating on Matter. Eve, a manufacturer of smart home gadgets such as sensors, plugs, switches, and lighting, previously only worked with Apple’s HomeKit, but with Matter, its products will be able to connect to Alexa and other smart home ecosystems. Yale, Wemo, Schlage, Sengled, Netatmo, Nanoleaf, Tuya, eWeLink, and Leedarson are additional brands that are developing Matter over Thread devices, according to Amazon.

Multi-admin control is one of Matter’s primary promises. This implies you should be able to use any other Matter controller to operate any Amazon smart home device that supports Matter. SmartThings, Google, and Apple have all committed to Matter, so you should be able to use their apps and voice assistants to control your Amazon smart home devices if you want to.

Because the standard is still being developed, no Matter devices are currently available for purchase. However, the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which supervises Matter, predicts that Matter-enabled smart home products will be available later in 2022.