SMART HOME SPECIAL
WHAT IS MATTER?
Confused? Intimidated? A new standard is here to make all your smart home devices work better…
One of the niggling problems with today’s smart home tech is that, as we’ve seen throughout this guide, you can’t simply choose the product you like best and assume it’ll work with the ecosystem you’ve got – you need to scan the specifications carefully to make sure it works with your particular platform. Matter is here to change that, and it’s backed by almost all the major smart home brands.
WHAT’S IT FOR?
Matter is actually the new name for an existing initiative, which had the much less catchy name ‘Project Connected Home over IP’, aka Project CHIP. And while the name wasn’t great, the idea was sound enough: your smart home tech should work like your other tech. You don’t need to worry who makes the Wi-Fi router you connect your laptop to, so why should you need to know who makes your smart home hub, or worry whether your smart bulbs will work with your smart plugs?