In a post on X from the Connectivity Standards Alliance, 13 smart home companies have been added to list of CSA’s members. The CSA’s X post outlined the new members, who have joined a growing initiative to spread the IoT connectivity standard, Matter, through their products and by promoting the standard.
The 13 are now a part of 271 participants and 233 adopters. That list is growing. With IFA 2023 and CEDIA 2023 approaching fast, we can expect to see more developments from these companies on the Matter front.
What is Matter?
It’s all about simplicity. Matter is an IoT connectivity standard that seeks to eliminate the need to consider whether a product will work with your ecosystem. While choosing an ecosystem like Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, or Samsung SmartThings and only buying products that work within that ecosystem can work, none of the individual ecosystems have created the best of the best in all areas.
There’s inevitably a crossover between products that work best with Alexa, ones that work best with Google Assistant, and ones that work best with Apple HomeKit, etc. With Matter, you can buy a Matter compatible product, set it up, and control it with any of your voice assistants. If it’s got the Matter symbol, it’ll work. The aim is ease of use for the consumer, and a more connected home.
Get on Board, or Wait?
The CSA’s website shows a search of 1,728 products that support Matter at the time of this article’s publishing. Creating the products for Matter compatibility, or updating existing ones, takes time. There’s a lot that goes into that process. So while the outpour of new Matter compatible smart products has been a bit of a trickle, it’s turning into a steadier stream.
With IFA 2023 coming on September 1, 2023, CEDIA 2023 on September 7, 2023, and CES 2024 in early January (the global kickoff event, CES 2024 Tech Trends, is on September 20th in Paris), we can expect to see more innovations from our favorite manufacturers, and you can bet that will include some that Matter.
