MATTER is a community-driven residential brand that leverages your smart home for good. A percentage of commissions earned on the sale of a Matter house will be donated to local and global initiatives supported by the brand.

The big four big platforms — Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, and Samsung SmartThings — all support Matter. That means you can use any one of their apps, speakers, hubs or smart voice assistants to control your Matter devices. And a Matter feature called multi-admin allows you to control your devices with different ecosystems and apps simultaneously.

However, you won’t need a new smart hub to run on Matter; many existing bridges and hubs can be updated to become Matter controllers with an over-the-air firmware update. For example, Yale and Eve Systems are upgrading their locks to Matter over Thread by using swappable modules, and Philips Hue and Aqara are adding Matter-over-Thread capabilities to their hubs.

You can also buy new Matter-compatible devices from these companies, including smart plugs from TP-Link and Aqara and wall switches from Eve and eWelink. Other companies like Veea and Infineon have announced their first multiprotocol system-on-chips with support for Matter, so you can expect to see more of these devices hitting the market soon.

The initial specification for Matter covers the most basic functions of most smart-home products, such as on / off; lock / unlock; and motion / no motion. But the goal is to increase functionality over time. In the future, you could expect to see features like adaptive lighting effects, shared access codes for door locks, energy management for smart plugs and more available through your chosen Matter platform. matter residences