455 Matter and Thread: The New Home Automation World (Tutorial)

We have all heard of Wi-Fi and Zigbee. And Alexa, Google home, or Apple Homekit. And Home Assistant, IOBroker, or Node-Red. And maybe “Matter” or “Thread”. But how do they relate? Today and in the future? And how does this affect us? Let’s have a closer look.

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[tiagdvideo]

A follow up on this would be very welcome - you've already created the best overview I've seen.

[dennyfox]

Thanks for clearing this up! All the background noise on Thread and Matter have been confusing to say the least.

[johnbrisbin]

Excellent presentation. I was not expecting the depth, coherence and illustrations.

[JimFelich]

I hadn't even heard of either of those, but now I will understand them when they come up for me. Thank you for another well-presented video.

[rkopatryx]

Thank you so much, this was an extremely valuable and helpful video for me:
You define the "problem" and its "pieces", you explain the considerations, you describe your decision-making process and what conclusion you have come to, and also what qualifiers apply. I believe I have seen you do this in other videos, too, and I'm very thankful: I like to think I'm clever, but there is quite a lot to consider, and I appreciate that you've offered a well-considered "blueprint" for how I can reconsider my own position. Bravo!!

[jamesmichener]

"The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from?" ...Grace Murray Hopper

[dmitrysysoletin]

Hi Andreas!

Thanks for the interesting video. Sorry, but I have a few boring comments here.
I think it is incorrect to mix Matter and Thread. Thread already exists a long time ago, and Matter is a relatively new thing.
Thread is like WiFi, but only for IoT devices. It offers reliable and long-range (because of its mesh network nature) communications for low-power devices, and, most important - it isn't dictating to you what data you must transfer (unlike Zigbee/Matter).
You don't need to buy a border router and sensor for starting playing with Thread - you need just 2 devkits from Nordic, you can make a DIY border router and sensor(s) - what I did.
Thread and Zigbee have some similarities only at first look - they both mesh, and they are both based on 802.15.4, but Zigbee was created in 90's, and Thread development started in mid-2010's - Thread is much more adapted to modern IoT needs. The Thread devices can talk with the cloud (or local server, MQTT-SN for example) directly - because of IP nature of the network. The border router is actually a simple packet forwarder, it is NOT changing the packet payload.
On the other hand, Matter is actually a Zigbee over IPv6 - with almost the same cluster structure. The same Zigbee from 90's. It is unlikely that we will see our devices working purely over Matter - because it is dictating a payload, it has a fixed (and limited) clusters structure.
So, Thread is a great thing for makers, but not Matter.
All opinions are just my own.

[klassichd]

Thank you for explaining things which matters. Similar here: Having a well working home automation with ioBroker, Homematic, Zigbee, ESPs, 433MHz, Modbus, RS485, I will wait until the novelities are mature enough, available and well supported by ioBroker. Such a powerful middleware is essential. Also integration of Fronius, BYD, Victron, Pylontech was minimal effort. Btw: Node to node communication is also provided by Homematic for many years. Useful feature.

[spicybaguette]

I do like that matter has support for multiple border routers. However the amount of added complexity makes me wonder whether the protocol is overengineered. I guess when you have to make a standard for all manufacturers, you have to include everyone's requests, otherwise they won't use it. Which is also probably the reason why the standardization takes sooo long. I guess the main benefit is there for the non-technical users, because we could always connect everything already with home assistant.

I also think it's useful for large companies that may have lots of sensors and multiple border routers. It looks like matter scales better than zigbee

[siberx]

I use a limited form of the device-to-device communication you describe at about 7:54 at my home. I have a variety of devices running Tasmota, and it has a simplified built-in scripting mechanism and a grouping function that allow you to link devices together independently of the server. Since the devices on my wall for controlling the lights are separate from the controllers hooked up to the LED strips themselves, this function means my wall switches still work as expected even when my Home Assistant server is down, requiring only wifi to operate.

As you say, it's a tricky function to get right but it's certainly nice to have when it works. I agree with the overall thrust of this video that both Matter and Thread are not that big of a deal for those of us who have already "solved" these problems with other protocols and techniques, but they will hopefully be useful for people currently stuck with their whole home automation setup linked to Google or Apple or whoever's ecosystem.

[thierrybranca]

Thanks Andreas
Another great video!
Personally, I 'm still with Z-Wave, and will try to keep it as long as possible. I love when it works without having to maintain. It is reliable, simple, powerful

[remy]

Great video as always, thank you.
It's nice to see the viewpoint of engineers who joined the Smart home wagon lately.

[kevinrtres]

Thanks for the heads up. Makes it easier to avoid going down another rabbit hole if just starting out. Much appreciated!

[opsahle]

Thank you for a good summary of this (for me) new topic!

[squelchstuff]

That was an excellent overview, and certainly clears up some questions that were troubling me. Thank you Andreas.

[_a_x_s_]

esp32-c6 has already got the development board on Mouser, which can also test the Thread and Matter capabilities.

[ragohy]

I agree with your Informations fully. Exept : i use wires (ethernet, 1-wire, etc) where ever possible. Cheers - Henry 😀

[koeiekop]

Again super informative! Thank you. Can’t wait to see what you will do with the ESP32-H2!

[toastedregret]

Andreas, completely agree with your point on the poor naming conventions for Matter & Thread. I've been looking for more details on this subject for a few months and gave up because the search results are so poor due to the broadness of these names. In a way, this video has helped consolidate so much information. Thank you so much!

[mikewa]

A succinct view of where the big players want us to go.

The connectivity we already have with ble and WiFi including ESPNOW and RFID or NFC is more than enough for most homes. To build redundancy in the WLAN we simply add a few more AP's and tune WiFi power levels along with a few client (sensor) roaming settings.