Matter 1.4 Could Finally Make Smart Home Systems Interoperable

The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) has published specifications for the updated Matter 1.4 open standard. It could simplify managing homes based on multiple software platforms like Apple’s HomeKit, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google’s Home.

CSA comprises hundreds of companies that build smart home appliances, but Matter has yet to achieve its holy grail of interoperability. At the very least, Matter 1.4 could make managing cross-platform smart homes less frustrating. The updated protocol brings four new device types, additional device categories, fixes for Thread network issues, and other changes. The biggest addition is an enhanced Multi-Admin feature that should make juggling between different home platforms less frustrating.

“Multi-Admin is central to Matter’s vision of choice and interoperability, allowing users to connect Matter devices to multiple smart home systems,” CSA wrote in today’s announcement. “However, sharing each device individually when managing multiple platforms can become tedious and complex as users expand their smart homes.”

Enhanced Multi-Admin aims to fix this with single user consent, which should allow both existing and new smart home accessories to connect to multiple ecosystems automatically. Color us skeptical as we have heard similar promises before. The Matter standard debuted in 2022, but here we are in 2024, and the smart home is still a disjointed mess.

Matter 1.4 also supports new energy devices like batteries (storage units, battery walls, and Battery Energy Storage Systems), solar power (inverters, hybrid solar systems, individual and panel arrays), heat pumps, and water heaters. And with the help of the new Water Heater Mode, you can adjust heating patterns when normal routines change.

Smart switches for controlling in-wall lights and fans are no longer in the Lights category and now have their own device type for better flexibility when grouping and automating them. The sensor cluster now supports radar, vision, and ambient sensing. You’ll be able to adjust sensor sensitivity, paving the way for new applications like person detection and activity classification.

Electric vehicle (EV) owners will be pleased to learn that Matter 1.4 supports EV chargers, thermostats, and similar devices, with the ability to choose optimal times for charging. Thermostats now support scheduling and new presets like Vacation, Home, and Away. Best of all, Matter 1.4 enables these presets to be triggered by other devices, automation based on calendar events, and motion detection.

The new Device Energy Management feature lets you set start times to optimize devices’ energy consumption patterns. Matter 1.4 lets companies build home routers and access points with both Wi-Fi access points and Thread Border routers. Such routers should enable people to add new Thread devices to their existing Thread network rather than having to create a new one. Lastly, low-powered devices like switches and buttons will benefit from optimizations in Matter 1.4 that extend battery life.

Matter 1.4 will take time to appear in upcoming smart home accessories, so don’t expect any immediate changes to your smart home experience based on this announcement. Matter 1.4 arrived six months after Matter 1.3, but Apple, Google, Amazon, and other major smart home players still haven’t implemented Matter 1.2 in their respective products.

Source: CSA