This means that as long as smart home brands conduct Matter-related testing and certification on their products and succeed, they can start selling devices bearing the Matter logo.
To this end, Qiming Cloud has created a demonstration video showing how Apple HomeKit controls LEDs via the Matter 1.0 protocol for your reference.
With the increasing prevalence of smart homes, various smart devices are emerging in large numbers. However, the penetration rate of complete smart home systems remains low. Many IoT manufacturers have their own ecosystems, and smart devices from different ecosystems often struggle to work together. This not only severely restricts consumer choice and affects their user experience, but also increases the costs for device manufacturers and developers in supporting and maintaining different ecosystems (Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit).
Currently, many smart home brands have already achieved cloud-to-cloud integration, allowing users to sync Brand B's account within Brand A's app. However, this only enables some basic functions. Furthermore, due to the cloud-based integration, control latency is relatively high. To achieve a complete smart home experience, users still need to download Brand B's app.
Focusing on the discussion of Matter, this article will answer these questions: What is the nature of Matter, and what are its uses? What potential does it possess, and what benefits can it bring to manufacturers and end users?
1. Advantages of Matter
No ecological barriers, easy to develop
When users have become accustomed to a mature smart home ecosystem, they often hope that new devices can be directly integrated into the existing system, rather than building a new ecosystem from scratch.
Before Matter, smart home devices manufactured by each company could only be controlled through their own app and could not interconnect with other devices in the ecosystem. However, through the Matter protocol, all Matter-enabled apps and hardware devices can easily and seamlessly interconnect and work together.
Currently, companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, and Samsung have all announced support for Matter. This means that common smart device control terminals in our daily lives (such as iOS/Android phones, voice assistants, smart speakers, etc.) will support the Matter protocol. Users won't even need a separate Matter device app to directly control Matter devices.
With Matter's support, device manufacturers no longer need to maintain multiple ecosystems or obtain multiple certifications simultaneously, thus saving significant time and manpower costs.
The equipment is becoming more automated
Automation between devices makes it easier to link smart home systems together. For example, you can build a simple smart home system with just a Matter sensor and a Matter light bulb, and the system has no restrictions on the manufacturer of the sensor or light bulb.
For manufacturers producing smart home devices such as sensors or switches, the Matter protocol allows you to focus on designing the core functionality of your products without worrying about communication issues between devices. Customers can also choose smart devices from any brand (such as light bulbs and fans) and unleash their imagination to customize their own smart ecosystem.
Matter enables efficient direct communication between devices without the need for specific forwarding devices. For example, Matter smart switches or sensors can directly turn Matter bulbs on/off without any app, cloud, or other special operations. Once configured, communication and control between Matter devices are implemented directly within the local area network.
No communication barriers
The Matter protocol allows various IP-enabled devices to work together, such as Wi-Fi and Thread/802.15.4 devices. Your phone can control all of these devices via the Matter protocol.
For example, you can configure an 802.15.4 sensor to turn a Wi-Fi light bulb on/off directly without an app or cloud connection. Of course, it also supports control via a mobile app. Communication between Wi-Fi and Thread devices requires a "Thread border router" that supports both Wi-Fi and 802.15.4 protocols, allowing devices to communicate between the two networks.
It is worth mentioning that since all of the above communications take place on the local Wi-Fi or Thread network, the device can still function normally even when the network is disconnected.
Matter can also help some existing Zigbee or Bluetooth LE Mesh devices connect to the Matter ecosystem network via bridging.
Common IoT communication
MatterCommunication
Protocol open
Matter is an open specification developed through collaboration among multiple companies, which greatly accelerates the evaluation and development process of devices.
Customization features
Today, the Matter specification supports an increasingly wider range of device types, attributes, and commands, and also supports custom attributes. Users can implement a wealth of functionalities based on Matter.
2. Espressif chips support Matter.
Espressif joined the Matter project from its inception. Currently, support for Espressif chips has been added to the Matter repository, details of which are as follows:
The ESP32, ESP32-C, and ESP32-S series of SoCs and modules that support Wi-Fi can all be used to develop Matter Wi-Fi terminal devices.
The ESP32-H series SoCs and modules, which integrate IEEE 802.15.4 (Thread/Zigbee), can be used to develop Matter Thread end devices.
Combining the ESP32-H series SoC with Espressif Wi-Fi SoC can build a Thread border router to connect Thread and Wi-Fi networks; it can also build a Matter-Zigbee bridging device to connect Matter and non-Matter networks.
A Matter-BLE Mesh bridging device can be built using a single chip that supports both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE, enabling interconnection between Matter networks and Bluetooth LE Mesh devices.
Espressif Systems, as one of the first participants in the development of the Matter protocol, has now received one of the world's first Matter 1.0 certifications. This means that Espressif chips have passed authoritative laboratory testing and meet all the technical requirements of the CSA Connectivity Standards Alliance for chip support of Matter. Using the ESP32 series SoCs (ESP32-S3, ESP32-C, ESP32-H, ESP32) to build products can accelerate the Matter certification process and significantly shorten time-to-market.
