Arlo announces its support for Matter to help develop more seamlessly interoperable smart home devices

Arlo has today announced that they will support Matter, a new connectivity standard with a goal to produce smart home devices that are seamlessly interoperable, secure and reliable.  Arlo will also lend their expertise to the development of the open-source standard which will further enhance its ability to provide in integrated smart home security experience. 

The new support will allow for cross-platform experiences and allow Arlo users to access the full suite of Arlo features “no matter which third-party smart home device is used in their home.”  Arlo joins other smart home manufacturers such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung, Facebook, Lifx, Ikea, Somfy and more in supporting Matter.

“We’re thrilled to affirm our partnership with Matter and be at the forefront of guiding the specification as it takes shape,” said Tejas Shah, Chief Information Officer and SVP of Software and Services at Arlo. “Innovation is at the core of Arlo’s DNA. Collaboration with Matter members to advance the integration between Internet of Things devices – ultimately delivering home security solutions that are highly intuitive, secure, and simple to use – is the driving force behind our commitment.” 

What is Matter and why does it matter?

Matter is the new name for Project CHIP, or Connected Home over IP, comprised of a group of the top vendors in the smart home space — as listed above.  It is not a smart home platform such as Apple Homekit, Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa but instead it is a unified connectivity technology for the smart home.  

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 is an IP-based technology and runs on networking standards like Wi-Fi, Ethernet and Thread – a protocol introduced in 2014 for faster and more secure smart home devices – with Bluetooth used for setup. 

Matter devices can also operate entirely locally without requiring access to the cloud, operating and connecting with each other using Thread and Wi-Fi.  The goal of Matter is to make smart home devices easier to connect and interoperate with each other – hopefully unifying a very fragmented the smart home ecosystems available.

Matter devices are expected to arrive this year so keep an eye out for more announcements at CES here at EFTM.com in the coming days

EFTM’s coverage of CES 2022 is supported by Intel, Vodafone, LG, Samsung and Hisense.