To date, smart home devices haven’t all played nicely together. Before, if you wanted to fully kit out your smart home with the latest and greatest tech, you would first have to check whether each and every new smart plug, lightbulb, video doorbell, and so on is compatible with the smart technology you already have. Otherwise, you could find yourself managing and controlling your devices from half a dozen different apps.
But that’s now finally changing. An alliance between smart home makers formed a few years ago, and that alliance is finally bearing fruit. Matter is the new protocol that came from the team-up, and it essentially lets you connect all supported devices to all supported systems—meaning you no longer have to worry about finding only the devices that support your ecosystem.
What is Matter?
![A door lock and smart bulb are among the products that work with Matter, a new smart home alliance](https://reviewed-com-res.cloudinary.com/image/fetch/s--JVOqE93W--/b_white,c_limit,cs_srgb,f_auto,fl_progressive.strip_profile,g_center,q_auto,w_792/https://reviewed-production.s3.amazonaws.com/attachment/4a945ddd30204f6f/matterdevices_matteralliance.png)
Credit:
Connectivity Standards Alliance
The Matter logo will be displayed on products that work with the smart home alliance.
Matter is an open-source interoperability standard that many smart home device makers have agreed to use as an industry standard for their products. The result is a more seamless experience for customers when it comes to buying and integrating smart home devices, as well as increasing security and reliability among the internet of things (IoT).
Dozens of smart home companies are part of the alliance that created Matter, including…