Matter: Why Apple, Amazon and Google are Working Together on Smart Home Tech

For years, smart home tech, apps and devices came with a compatibility problem. Now, Apple, Amazon and Google are working together to support a new smart home standard called Matter. It’s supposed to let many smart home gadgets that use Wi-Fi and other common protocols work more seamlessly with others.

So what’s Matter, how does it work, and why are these big tech companies playing nice for once? I’ll explain in three minutes.

0:00 Matter: the reason why Big Tech is joining forces
0:35 The History of Matter
1:34 How does Matter work?
2:18 Will Matter really change smart home technology?

I’m Dalvin Brown, a WSJ reporter covering personal technology, which includes the latest smart devices, apps and services making an impact on consumers. Subscribe if you're curious about what the latest tech developments mean for you, or if you want to go behind the scenes to find out what’s powering today's digital services.

#Matter #SmartHome #DalvinBrown

[DalvinBrownWSJ]

What big issues do you hope smart home companies would solve?

[panashifzco]

The matter only matters once more people turn to smart home devices. At this time, the people using smart home devices is comparatively less, but we could hope that this would eventually rise in future.

[Charles-fojs]

Smart home tech probably won’t see that kind of growth because it’s a simple convenience rather than a solution to a problem. I can’t see large amounts of people spending so much on smart home tech that does things they can do themselves; it doesn’t help that all the players are massive tech companies with suspect privacy policies.

[tilak]

That's interesting to watch! Hearing for the first time about Matter! Thanks!

[arjungandhi]

The smart home revolution failed to gain the traction they expected for three additional reasons on top of the ecosystem lock in described in this video

1) many of these solutions don’t actually make using the product easier. They feel like a solution in search of a problem. As such there is limited incentive to invest

2) there are some serious privacy concerns that are yet to be fully addressed. Yes our phones are always on us, but the concept of basically paying to digitally wire tap your house with poor privacy and security is not appealing

3) shorter product life spans and support. A lot of these devices are designed to be replaced more frequently. A lot of these categories typically had longer lifespans so reducing that for smart functionalityis not always desirable. On top of that a variety of smart devices have come out and been discontinued due to poor sales making them paperweights when the cloud connectivity is turned off. Matter should help with this but trust is shaken

Technology thrives when it presents something new or provides a more optimized way of doing things. Smart homes outside of a couple of devices haven’t quite nailed that yet. Maybe that will change soon but until then I am more than fine to just get up and flick a light switch

[MAG]

In my opinion, a small crowd will actually use SHDs regularly. Casual users like myself won't even bother with them because we don't even think to speak out loud. We mostly just press a button. A majority of people are in apartments that have physical switches, knobs & levers & things. Nowhere near a Star Trek society for sure. Its a great attempt at capturing tbe consumer base who like to dream but not everyone wants that type of convenience.

I like clicky buttons, and things i can touch & feel. Imo.

Also, not all the time does the voice assistant gets the commands, which is also a drag.

"Call 911"
"Ok, playing song 911 rock".

All while your apt is on fire.

[methos-eynf]

IMHO I think device compatibility and being locked into ecosystems is only a part of why the smart home market has not taken off the way analysts anticipated. IMHO the lack of real problems being solved or real value being added is a huge reason why the market has not grown. It would be very interesting to see a breakdown of sales of devices. My guess is things like thermostats that can actually save you money have sold pretty well. Conversely I would guess smart refrigerators have not sold well because adding a screen to show me what’s inside is a solution in search of a problem and doesn’t improve my quality of life.

I think the root of the problem is most of the companies in the smart home market are focused on making widgets that are easy to plug in, but home improvement is much more involved than that. When one thinks about how homes have improved over the centuries there’s been massive improvements in safety & comfort, but the enabling technologies are embedded into the structure – think insulation, heating & air conditioning, plumbing, etc. These things are also physical but most smart home devices don’t really interact with the physical world.

[james.telfer]

Smart homes were publicised since the 50s, the IoT type that exists now is just the computerised version, so it's not a new concept.
Lack of connection standards is the biggest issue, but at least it's driven the development of over arching control platforms like Home Assistant.
But, you need to have a good grounding in IT to really use any of these or you'll be unable to troubleshoot.

[krazejeff]

I believe security sucks so people are reluctant to immerse in to the smart home

[owangejewice]

It'd probably be worth more than the estimate if anyone under 50 could afford to buy a goddamned home to put the smart crap in.

[ernianisa]

Because before this War 2 main powerful castles of Islam, Turkey and Saudi Arabia were destroyed and since Pakistan was the last castle of Islam, then it was very essential to defend Pakistan in order to save Islam. #MuhammadQasimDreams

[Max]

😏 Not everyone can just set up a smart home, Hopefully matter smart devices will solve that problem

[midnightfuture]

Smart home products have a broken economic model. They are mostly rentier approaches, inserting a merchant’s remote services into your local device usage so they can charge a recurring fee. The industry has to shift to models that make enough margin on device sales themselves.

Matter may be a local in-home networking standard, but as long as devices require remote server access to configure and administer, the smart home revolution is a nonstarter.

[_Sun_Tzu]

Guess, we know which analyst to avoid from now on 🤣

[soopermikey]

You either have a smart home or you don’t. It’s not a slippery slope. I mostly talk to my home. Routines set so I never think about lighting. The robo vacuum is probably the most under rated thing created. Changing the central ac temp from bed makes one become very particular about such things.

[verity]

Who need a stasi in your home? I rather have stasi I can cary anywhere like my phone.

[jonathansy]

Safari Star cross-border business solutions are customized to fit your business needs ensuring that you are always 100% compliant.

[bellcurve]

If i need to turn to light on or off, i get off my arse and flip the switch. I dont give an F for this smart nonsense. They dont help they just cost money.

[didaresti]

I've seen this war many times in my true dreams, this war is imposed upon Pakistan and we defend our country and Islam. ✓MuhammadQasimDreams

[marufhasan]

"When Pakistan Army will be weakened due to lack of Money and Fuel, then the enemies will attack Pakistan. India will attack from the eastern borders and Afghanistan from the western borders. "

Many of Muhammad Qasim's dreams have already come true. Don’t ignore Muhammad Qasim's dreams.