Matter

The Wi-Fi Alliance and Thread Group have revealed they’re working with the CSA on several solutions to make sure your Wi-Fi router plays well with your smart home devices:

These include features like IPV 6 and multicast discovery, which we want to make sure are consistent and reliable across routers ... The way routers implement their multicast discovery can be broken, and that leads to a pretty bad experience for users ... We need to make Wi-Fi work reliably for all of the IoT use cases.

I’ve experienced network issues setting up Matter devices and keeping them online, and I’m not alone. If Matter can fix Wi-Fi routers, all will be forgiven.

In an interview with The Verge, Vividh Siddha, director of engineering at Apple and president of Thread Group, shared another use case for the Thread radio in newer iPhones.

As well as allowing setup of a Thread device when you don’t have a Thread border router, the Thread radio in the iPhone lets you control devices when the power is out:

But the other important factor is the ability to use your accessories, and some important ones, like your front door lock when there’s a power outage. If you have no infrastructure — your Wi-Fi router is down, your Thread border router is down — and you still want the ability to get into your house or do other things that might be smart home related. Those are some use cases that it’s explicitly designed for, but it’s not limited to that. 

SmartWings, one of the first to offer Matter over Thread smart shades, has another first. Today, the company announced its Matter over Ethernet smart shades, which use a single cable to provide power and connectivity — no batteries, Thread, or Wi-Fi required.

Matter compatibility means the shades, which come in roller, zebra, and woven styles, will work with Apple Home, Google Home, SmartThings, Alexa, and other smart home platforms.

ThirdReality’s MK1 Magic Keyboard ($80, launching March) is a Matter smart button. Ingenious!

The function keys are programmable buttons. Just press to activate a scene or control smart devices like lights through Apple Home, SmartThings, or Home Assistant. Mechanical keyboard / smart home nerds rejoice!

“SmartThings for ships is a new integration that uses Matter, the connectivity standard, to connect with compatible ships,” Sean Michael of Samsung Electronics America said during the company’s press conference today.

Apparently, you’ll be able to automate the climate, lighting, and even the engine of your yacht or, you know, cargo ship.

The company announced the price of the Bolt Mission UWB Plus NFC at CES this week. It's Ultraloq’s first lock to support the new hands-free unlocking technology, and they say it will launch in Q1 2025. It will also support NFC for tap-to-unlock and Matter.

The Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter, which debuted at CES last year, will go on sale on January 7th for $199.

The company has launched a Matter-over-Thread version of the Bolt for $229 and is offering existing Bolt users a free upgrade.

This means that, as promised, the “invisible” smart lock, which goes inside your existing hardware, now works with more smart home platforms without needing Level’s bridge.

The Level Lock Plus recently got a Matter upgrade, too, but the Lock and Lock Touch are still waiting.

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An update to the company’s Flic Hub LR Controller allows users to program custom commands for Matter devices, including those connected to Flic’s Button and Twist controllers.

Matter support in FlicScript — a JavaScript-based scripting API — will let you “subscribe and send commands to and from any Matter device” (up to 1.2) and create custom solutions for your smart home.

Flic launched the first independent Matter Controller earlier this year.

As promised, the smart lock that doesn't look like a smart lock now supports the new smart home standard, bringing better connectivity options without needing Level’s bridge.

The new Level Lock Plus (Matter) costs $329, and existing Level Plus owners can upgrade to Matter for free through January 14, 2025. But while they could support Thread, the Level Bolt, Lock, and Lock Touch aren’t eligible for this upgrade.

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The open-source smart home platform has joined the Z-Wave Alliance board to help shape the direction of the protocol alongside companies like Ring, ADT, and Assa Abloy.

Founder Paulus Schoutsen said that around one-tenth of Home Assistant households use Z-Wave, “accounting for an estimated 1.7 million Z-Wave devices.” They’re also seeing increased interest in the protocol, which has faced questions about its future since the arrival of Matter.