What you need to know
- Nanoleaf is announcing new Matter-enabled lighting products with a release date of "early 2023."
- Philips Hue will be pushing a software update to its Hue Bridge soon.
- The Matter 1.0 standard and certification program released October 4 2022.
As technology has progressed, it seems natural that smart home devices would too. However, while these products are connected and meant to simplify certain tasks, we quickly learned how disconnected they were all becoming. Matter is touted to resolve that, and today, that idea is beginning to roll out to some of the most popular brands like Nanoleaf, Philips Hue, Amazon, and more.
Matter has been in the works since 2016 and launched version 1.0 in early October 2022.
If you're unfamiliar with Matter, we have a full explainer here, but in short, this is a new communication standard for connected devices that is designed to allow different types of products from any certified brand to work together. The standard was a group effort from companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, Samsung, and more, with over 300 brands already applying for certification.
Matter 1.0 standard and certification program launched about a month ago, and today, we are getting even more information from some of the brands that will be implementing it. Nanoleaf, the smart lighting company, per our sibling site iMore, has announced new Matter-supporting devices in its Essentials line-up to be released in "early 2023." These devices include a range of light bulbs and light strips. There hasn't been any word on if or when iconic lights like the Canvas will pick up an update for Matter in the future.
Philips Hue, another company making some of the best smart lights on the market, also announced that it would update its product line with Matter. Unfortunately, there isn't a definite date for these devices either, with the company only saying "soon."
Amazon also confirmed during the event that it will update its Echo with Matter over Wi-Fi, with initial support for Android devices and smart accessories arriving in December. iOS devices, Thread, and support for more smart devices will come in 2023. Samsung previously announced that it would soon be updating the SmartThings app with support for Matter.
So, while we don't have Matter operating on products in the wild just yet, it seems that the new standard is beginning to progress in that direction, with makers of some of the best smart home devices announcing their intentions as to how they will include Matter in their product lines.
