My biggest issue with Thread is (AFAICT) it gives each device access to the internet. That's the absolute last thing I want and the reason I went 100% Z-wave (with a handful of legacy zigbee devices). I want a single point of local hardware that my devices talk to and that hub can talk to the internet as needed but I don't want to have to vet every device or deal with companies going out of business.
As it stands now I don't care at all who made my Z-wave switches/bulbs/plugs, they could already be out of business for all I care, that's not the case with 90% of "smart home" shit I see online. "No hub" means "absolutely not" for me because that's a wifi device with full access to your network (unless you segment) and the internet.
The spec is behind a lead capture form so direct links below:
https://csa-iot.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/22-27349-001_...
https://csa-iot.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/22-27350-001_...
https://csa-iot.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/22-27351-001_...
> Matter lets devices communicate with bridges and controllers locally, which means that your smart home will still work when the internet goes down, and some devices may still have basic functionality even if they lose their cloud connection because the device maker goes out of business.
While I'm glad perfect did not become the enemy of the good and we actually have a standard now, I hope the consortium doesn't stop here, and keeps moving toward more vendor-agnostic, consumer-friendly standards.
> Originally, Matter was supposed to handle enough elements of provisioning and functionality so users wouldn’t have to download an app. In most cases, users will still need to do so.
While I also hope Matter doesn't turn into USB-IF ("Matter 3.1 Gen 2 SuperSpeed"), some clear evolutions or optional certifications (especially something for long-term, in-case-they-fold functionality) would be good to see them working toward.
A co-worker and I were just talking about Matter yesterday. Underneath the hood this runs on a networking protocol called "Thread"[1], which itself uses IEEE 802.15.4. This is pretty similar to ZigBee. Thread runs on 2.4ghz.
Thread uses ipv6 and UDP (TCP optional), so it should integrate well with existing network infrastructure.
I'll be closely following the development of matter, especially when it comes to compatible devices. Cloud dependency of many devices for the most basic functionality offered is an absolute dealbreaker for me. While I doubt that there will be meaningful change when it comes to the app mess retrofit smart home systems tend to create, I really do think matter will offer significant improvements. Knowing that I will still be able to dim my smart lights even if company X goes bankrupt makes is slightly easier to justify spending the premium on smart bulbs.
Also, I really hope that having one universal application level protocol for a variety of devices will further improve the home assistant experience. While the device support is great for many big brands, smaller brands (especially those outside the US) are sometimes lacking integrations.
There's a lot of VC blood on the floor that bought us this common standard. Standardization is tough or impossible in a market that is minting unicorns -- we just had to wait for things to cool off before we could agree.
This is one of the gotchas of our current tech world: money drives progress, but that progress is almost always at the expense of cooperation.
This is great news, the Matter protocol sounds like it will make things a lot easier in the future.
If you're looking to get started with home automation, I would recommend using Home Assistant as the central software to control everything. Matter seems to solve some issues that I don't really experience as a Home Assistant user. You can use Home Assistant as the gateway that connects all your hubs and devices together.
I would also highly recommend buying Zigbee products from AliExpress. These are far more affordable than anything that you find in a retail store or from big brands. If you're very wealthy then you could afford to go with Philips Hue products for everything, but I've had a lot of success with some very affordable Zigbee and Bluetooth devices.
Here's the products I would recommend (all prices in USD):
* XIAOMI Mijia Bluetooth Temp/Humidity sensors: $4.86 - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000528071010.html
* You can flash these with a great custom firmware: https://github.com/pvvx/ATC_MiThermometer
* Motion sensor: $9.49
* Door/window sensor: $8.49
* Temp/humidity sensor: $8.49 (If you prefer Zigbee to Bluetooth)
* 1 gang switch: $11.19
* 2 gang switch: $13.06
* 1 gang dimmer for LED lights: $13.06
* 2 gang dimmer: $14.92
I've been really impressed with these battery-powered devices. I was worried that I'd be constantly changing batteries, but some of my motion and door sensors have lasted for over 2 years on a single CR2032 battery.
What is the coolest thing you can do with a smarthome? The single biggest selling point?
Seems like you can basically just control appliances from your smartphone. Seems like such a small benefit (frankly I wouldn't even use it) for such a large effort, not to mention the security and data integrity problems.
At Home Assistant we're very excited about Matter.
Here are some highlights for us:
Open source reference implementation: Google, Apple, Home Assistant, we're all going to be running the same code to be a Matter controller. Chip manufacturers like Espressif and Nordic maintain implementations for their boards in there too, so anyone can now have the software to produce Matter compatible light bulbs. https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip
It will be cheap: The software is freely available and works with a big audience. It's the same reason Android TVs from some manufacturers are cheap, the same will be the case for Matter lights and switches.
Multi-fabric: each Matter device is required to support 5 fabrics. A fabric is a Matter network. This means that you will be able to run multiple home automation controllers at the same time. So when run into the limitations of Google Home or Apple Home, you can try out Home Assistant without taking down your old system.
Easy sharing of devices: Because of multi-fabric, it will be as easy as hitting a share button to get a device added to another fabric. See this example of Android https://twitter.com/home_assistant/status/157703612255503564...
Local: all communication for Matter is happening local between a device, a thread border router (if thread-based Matter), and the controller. Note that your controller can still decide to store your data in the cloud (ie Amazon, Google).
Supported by major systems: Amazon, Apple, Google and Home Assistant are all building the open source Matter code into their systems. It means that for manufacturers it will be easy to pick Matter as the protocol they want to support to reach most users.
Works over IP: Matter works over IP and doens't care how that IP-based device communicates. It means that you can have Wi-Fi based and Thread-based devices co-exist on your network. Thread is not required if you don't care about such devices.
Bridges are part of the standard: Devices like Philips Hue hubs are going to get an upgrade to expose all the Hue lights over Matter via the hub. This makes integrating a whole ecosystem at once into Matter very easy.
Thread: Thread is a mesh networking standard that connects to your Wi-Fi network via border routers. Where Zigbee and Z-Wave need to mesh communicate all the way to your controller, Thread messages will be delivered via Wi-Fi/ethernet as soon as possible. This means it is a lot more reliable and less traffic is going over the mesh. Expect cheap border routers (open source reference implementations) but also expect them in your future Wi-Fi routers, voice assistants, Wi-Fi connected TVs etc.
Paulus /Founder Home Assistant https://www.home-assistant.io
Something on this page prevents clicking the Security Webinar and Whitepaper download links on Firefox and Chrome, so here are those links:
https://csa-iot.org/newsroom/matter-security-privacy-webinar...
https://csa-iot.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Matter_Securi...
Doesn't Matter require device attestation? To me, this says, "Matter will never be compatible with cheap DIY devices like ESP32 devices". And also makes me suspicious of being able to create a Chromecast competitor that removes ads, or whatever.
I can’t help but think the team photo on the site is staged. It looks like everyone is wearing costumes for a hipster themed costume party.
Is there an open source implementation?
On the threadgroup.org web page it has an ad to "Gain intellectual property rights for Thread technology" - what does this mean?
Having no idea what “ Matter™ ” is, this headline feels vaguely like somebody is declaring that reality is in fact Facebook-officially real, and you can expect to go out and explore it today if you wish.
This related article from the same blog, and its comment section, helped me understand the current state of matter and the trajectory of the standard after 1.0. It seems it will take some time to support the full range of typical devices. It’s also unclear what manufacturers will need to do to ease setup and interoperability within their own apps.
https://staceyoniot.com/5-ways-matter-will-disappoint-users-...
This is my favorite sentence:
> There are 550 members of the CSA participating in the Matter standard development, and this summer 280 companies including Amazon, Signify, Google, SmartThings, and more met up to test their products working together in a series of test events.
Creating a specification is good, but it doesn't matter if no one will implement it. I haven't been following the development of Matter, but as an outsider this is a very good sign.
I'm excited. But I really have no idea if it will be good or bad.
I'm sure devices will be phoning home, but I can accept that. What worries me is that they might brick themselves if the server goes down. Either intentionally, as a "This device can't get security updates so we won't let you use it" thing, or accidentally, as in "Oops, we never actually tested this feature without internet, sorry the lights are stuck on disco mode till you fix that".
Hopefully nobody will actually rely on direct device to server stuff, and Matter will standardize local versions of everything that might otherwise be done with the server.
And hopefully they don't phone home so much that the whole thing just becomes untrusted by the tech savvy crowd and disappears entirely.
I would have been fine with ZigBee, but if this gets as big as they want it to, the switch will be worth it. I'm still hopeful.
The name is awful though. Couldn't it be WebMatter or something? Can we stop naming things after ungoogleable common words?
Wait, is this a bad thing?
"So while Matter makes it possible for Eve, a sensor and device company that historically only worked with Apple’s HomeKit ecosystem, to finally work on Android devices, it also means that Eve’s competitors can work with the same ecosystems while offering cheaper devices that may not cover all of Eve’s cool features such as energy monitoring."
I mean who wants more choice of devices, and cheaper ones at that?
I've been holding off buying any new smart bulbs etc. until this is finally a widespread thing, I just hope manufacturers are quick to get on board.
I have a few wifi bulbs in the house which are ok but you need a special app to use them and I can't see a way to integrate them into Home Assistant as it's some proprietary thing from TP-link ('TAPO') - I'm not making that mistake again!
> ... So while Matter makes it possible for Eve, a sensor and device company that historically only worked with Apple’s HomeKit ecosystem, to finally work on Android devices, it also means that Eve’s competitors can work with the same ecosystems ...
I buy the smart home product based on the specific need I'm trying to fill and whether or not it works with Alexa, which nearly everything does, so the only part of the ecosystem that I'm locked into is the Alexa side. I can, however, control my devices (a subset of features depending on what the vendor decided to expose) from my Echo Show, Alexa app and "talking to the lady". I say "Ziggy, Goodnight", my Belkin smart plug fires up, my two LIFX lights shut off, my Cree bulb shuts off. At 1:00 AM, my LG and Roku TVs shut off. I set this all up through Alexa routines, not the apps (which were needed to join the device to WiFi and pair with Alexa).
This post seemed more negative than it should be -- I'm not unhappy with Matter -- yes, it's got problems, but it's a good starting point toward "let me use the device from the manufacturer that makes the best one, not the one I'm stuck with because I use Amazon's ecosystem." Only time will tell if we see a myriad of devices that are Matter licensed which "interoperate with one another offline" but I'm hopeful.
[0] It's by accident ... I had a job that involved developing Alexa skills so it was helpful to work with one regularly; the kids liked them, so we bought more.
The best part about this is we finally have some kind of broad certification. Amazon has a similar process, but it is currently in its infancy. The process may not be perfect, but it is now in place, which means it can be augmented. I hope this means the free-for-all of insecure IoT devices starts to diminish.
Mainly I’m concerned that there is little or no Matter support in Tasmota/ESPHome/WLED or other firmwares that target the ESP8266/ESP32.
It’s the perfect fit, and the market is literally crying for it. The fact that the community has not jumped in with both feet is.. unsettling.
Are the Bluetooth & WiFi required, or can it be just Matter?
I am all Zigbee currently because Z-wave proprietary nature and some technical limitations.
edit: welp "Matter aims to build a universal IPv6-based communication protocol for smart home devices." time to look for something to replace my zigbees. :/
What are the implications of Matter on the privacy of my household? Will implementations require me to connect to the "cloud" or send "telemetry" to it, or will I be allowed to run this system completely isolated from the internet?
Do any of these devices support powerline networking? Would solve so many problems.
"has left some of the more complicated use cases for later."
Er, Stacey, you mean "most interesting".
But better late and lame, than never.
Remember, the great thing about Smart Home standards is there are so many to choose from.
Neat. I've been using the Alexa phone app as a centralizing tool for all my smart home junk, and it works (usually), but it's awkward.
The S in Matter stands for Security
> Originally, Matter was supposed to handle enough elements of provisioning and functionality so users wouldn’t have to download an app. In most cases, users will still need to do so
I see that the surveillance capitalists got their way.
When I hear Thread, I see this:
https://static3.depositphotos.com/1003681/166/i/950/depositp...
(Slight tongue-in-cheek) That's the first hit from Google.
Comments moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33083413.
Edit: I've been told that this article is the better one so am going to merge the thread hither.