Google Nest and Android Devices Now Support Matter

Google on Thursday announced that Google Nest and Android devices now support Matter, an interoperable connectivity standard for smart home devices developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA).

Setting up and customizing your smart home devices with Google Home just got easier thanks to Matter, a new standard for smart home platforms, apps and devices. Starting today, Google Nest devices and Android devices are Matter-enabled, allowing you to quickly and consistently set up Matter-enabled devices and customize your smart home to best suit your needs.

Matter is the product of collaborative efforts between about 300 companies, including Google, Apple, and Amazon. It is a unified smart home standard that works across hundreds of brands. While Matter was originally supposed to launch in late 2020, it was delayed several times and was finally released back in October.

Google has added Matter support through an automatic update pushed to compatible Google Nest and Android devices, allowing them to connect to Matter devices from other brands.

The Matter standard requires a hub for users to control all of their smart devices. “If you want to control your smart home with Google Home, you’ll need a Google Home or Nest device that can double as a hub for Matter,” Google explained.

“These devices include the original Google Home speaker, Google Home Mini, Nest Mini, Nest Audio, Nest Hub (1st and 2nd gen), Nest Hub Max, and the new Nest Wifi Pro.”

Google has also added support for Thread, a low-power networking technology that can serve as an alternative to Wi-Fi for Matter-enabled devices. The Nest Wifi Pro, Nest Hub Max, and Nest Hub (2nd gen) can all function as Thread border routers.

In addition, Matter support for Fast Pair on Android is now available. “Fast Pair makes it simple to quickly connect Matter-enabled devices to your home network, Google Home and other smart home apps, as quickly as you can pair a set of headphones,” Google said.

Apple beat Google to the punch in adopting the Matter standard, enabling support for it with iOS 16.1 in October. Amazon announced Matter support for Alexa devices last month, as did Philips for its Philips Hue lights and accessories.

There are quite a few Matter devices already available in stores, and a lot more are expected to hit shelves next year. According to Google, any smart device with the Matter badge will work out of the box with Google Home. The company also said that devices from other brands will have a “Works With Google Home” badge if they’ve been tested to work well with Google devices.

Google has promised to bring iOS support to the Google Home app next year, and also add Matter support to even more Google devices.

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