At Google I/O this year, we’ve seen plans for Android and other products, but this morning Smart Home devices were on the agenda. Google has announced their support for Matter across Android and their Nest products, which should hopefully make setting up smart home devices easier and faster.
Matter is the new name for Project CHIP, or Connected Home over IP, a group of the top vendors in the smart home space. The group includes big names like Amazon, Apple and of course Google and more, all of whom want to make smart home devices easier to connect and interoperate with each other.
Matter is about making Smart Home setup easier and making them more interoperable, so in theory you could use a Matter enabled Android device with Amazon and Apple smart devices, at least once they’re certified. The Matter protocol runs on networking standards like Wifi, Ethernet and Thread – a protocol introduced in 2014 for faster and more secure smart home devices – with Bluetooth used for setup.
There are a couple of Google specific announcements for Matter including turning on support for Matter directly in Android, and activating Matter support on their Nest devices.
In Android, Google will build support for Matter directly into Android, offering a ‘seamless’ experience which will let over one billion Android devices enable simple setup and control all Matter-certified products.
On the Nest front, Google says that their Nest Wifi, Nest Hub Max and the second-generation Nest Hub will become ‘connection points for Matter devices’, while all Nest displays and speakers, like the Nest Hub and Nest Mini, will be automatically updated to control Matter devices.
The update is of course dependent on new devices with Matter support launching, and Google is already talking with vendors like Philips about Hue lighting, and Tuya about upcoming Matter enabled devices.
A lot of this will happen in the background and won’t mean a lot until the broader adoption and devices supporting Matter begin to flow. Google has said they’re committed to Matter, and with the likes of Apple and Amazon on board as well, so we’re sure to see a lot more of Matter down the road.
