‘Matter’ Smart Home Connectivity Standard Delayed to 2022

In a recent blog post, Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) CEO Tobin Richardson announced that ‘Matter’ — an upcoming connectivity standard designed to allow smart home products from Amazon, Apple, Google, and more to work seamlessly together, has been delayed yet again (via The Verge).

Matter is being developed by a coalition of Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Google, SmartThings, and the CSA, which consists of over 180 member organizations like IKEA, Schneider Electric, Signify, and more.

The unifying connectivity standard was first announced in 2019 and was slated for launch in late 2020. Matter’s release was later rescheduled for sometime in 2021, and the recently announced delay pushes it out to sometime in the first half of 2022.

Existing smart home products, like Philips Hue (which has already announced full support for the standard on its smart light products) should start getting Matter updates in early 2022. However, according to smart home expert Stacey Higginbotham, we might not see new, Matter-certified smart home hardware until the latter half of next year.

While the core Matter standard has a “feature-complete specification”, the team is still developing the SDK and certification program that will allow developers to get both new and existing products Matter-approved.

Matter aims to ensure that the connectivity standard it furnishes allows inter-operability between smart home and Internet of Things (IoT) products from not only Amazon, Apple, and Google, but also from over 200 different manufacturers, with more being added to the fray constantly.

The team’s ongoing bids to add even more companies to the Matter initiative, the new delta variant-fueled wave of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the sheer difficulties of creating such an expansive connectivity standard all had parts to play in delaying the standard even farther.

While smart home product makers like Google are trying to enable inter-operability and multi-platform integration on their own in the meantime, Matter’s solution will act as a universal bridge. Unfortunately, the new delay means that anyone banking on the revolutionary connectivity standard to streamline their smart home experience will have to wait a while longer.

P.S. - Like our news? Support the site with a coffee/beer. Or shop with our Amazon link. We use affiliate links when possible--thank you for supporting independent media.