• Matter will revolutionize your smart home here's everything you

    From TechnologyDaily@1337:1/100 to All on Fri Nov 4 18:30:04 2022
    Matter will revolutionize your smart home here's everything you need to know

    Date:
    Fri, 04 Nov 2022 18:14:11 +0000

    Description:
    Matter is coming to many of your favorite smart home gadgets, here's how
    it'll change your tech for the better.

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    Matter 1.0 is here. After months of hearing about how this software standard will provide a massive benefit to our smart home, users can finally start to see it in action as it rolls out to new gadgets and old favorites.

    Over 500 companies across the world have been working together under the Connectivity Standards Alliance to bring Matter to life. With the launch of Matter 1.0 and the start of the Matter certification program, it should now
    be much easier to find smart home tech that'll benefit your day-to-day rather than cause you a bunch of headaches.

    But what is Matter and how will it work? We're here with the answers. What is Matter?

    The promise of smart home tech is that your gadgets can interact with each other to make a system that is better than the sum of its parts. One example of an ideal world could see you unlock your front doors smart lock after coming home from a long day of work and your Amazon Echo Dot (2020) smart speaker could instantly kick on your favorite tunes while a smart coffee machine brews you a relaxing beverage.

    Unfortunately to achieve something like this you need to spend a lot of time researching if a device is compatible with the gadgets you already have and if it isn't there might not be an alternative that is.

    Thats where Matter comes in. Rather than lots of smaller micro-ecosystems, Matter-supporting devices will all be able to interact as part of one big smart home setup. When buying a new Matter-compatible product you wont need
    to worry if it will interact with your existing Google Assitant , Amazon Alexa, or Apple Homekit -powered setup, it should just be able to integrate seamlessly. How will Matter work?

    Using Matter shouldnt change how you currently interact with your smart home setup. Once the update rolls out to your devices and their smartphone apps, you should be able to continue using everything as you do now, youll just
    have more options for the gadgets you can add to your home. The only thing to watch out for is that different brands arent integrating their products with Matter in the same way.

    Some, such as Phillips Hue , will make nearly all of their existing devices (as well as new ones) Matter compatible. Like Phillips, companies will do
    this via a software update which for the Hue Bridge will happen in Q1, 2023, or January, February, or March which will then bring the devices into the fold of the new standard. Nearly every Phillips Hue device will work support Matter (Image credit: Philips)

    There may be a few hiccups here and there Philips is having to abandon the Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box and the dial of the Philips Hue Tap Dial
    Switch for now, and some settings may be reset by the change but for the
    most part, the transition over to Matter will be quick and painless.

    Unfortunately, this total adoption of Matter wont be possible for every existing smart home device. For some brands like Amazon and Google very old models will be left behind.

    If you have the latest smart device like the new Echo Dot (5th gen) , the Google Nets Hub Max , or the Echo Show 10 (among others) then those should
    get the Matter update. However, models that are older than a few years wont necessarily offer the same support. In those instances, youll either have to upgrade your smart speakers or forgo the benefits that Matter will bring.

    Further, even some fairly recent models wont update to Matter, with support for the new standard only coming to newly released smart home gadgets from some brands. Thats the case with Nanoleafs smart lighting only the new Matter-compatible additions to its Essentials line will adopt the Matter standard. The new Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) will support Matter, but many older models won't. (Image credit: Amazon)

    That said, even if your older gadgets dont get the update, your existing
    smart home setup should continue to work as well as ever. So, unless you were planning to upgrade it already there shouldnt be a need for you to rush out and replace everything right away.

    If you are looking to buy some upgrades though say you're looking to take advantage of some of this year's best Black Friday deals on smart home tech then you'll want to make sure what you're buying does support Matter, otherwise, your new purchases could become outdated pretty quickly.



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    Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/matter-will-revolutionize-your-smart-home-heres -everything-you-need-to-know/


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