It’s a great day for Smart Homes, Matter is here

Rejoice, the first matter device hits the market. IoT is finally free.

Today is not a bad day to celebrate. We have a matter-supported IoT device from a pretty eminent market leader. Officially announced on 18 December 2019 and launched on Nov 2022 by Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), formerly known as the Zigbee Alliance, this is the most groundbreaking step towards smart home and automation.

Today we have the first ever matter device in flesh launched by TP-Link a market leader in the networking device space.

Let’s discuss how this is going to change the IoT landscape in the coming days, for good.

What is Matter?

Matter, formerly Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP), is a proprietary standard for home automation that is royalty-free, with manufacturers only incurring certification costs. It is designed to be communication protocol agnostic, meaning it can work with multiple communication protocols and is not limited to a specific one. So think about Wifi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Thread, and Ethernet all being supported.

It is primarily a local connectivity standard, so Matter-only devices require an internet-connected controller to talk to the internet like which is available in those smart hubs and speakers.