NEWS – Matter, the connectivity standard for smart devices for the home, has recently been upgraded to version 1.4. Every six months or so the Connectivity Standards Alliance releases a new version with support for more IoT devices. Version 1.3 brought support for a variety of home appliances, things like dishwashers, washing machines, refrigerators, and robot vacuum cleaners, and version 1.4 brings support for energy management devices, things like solar systems, batteries, heat pumps, and water heaters as well as EV chargers for electric cars. It also adds more features for home routers that want to incorporate Matter directly. Right now, most of the smart devices that I have include limited functionality in the Home app, my smart home platform of choice. To get all the features, I need to use a vendor app. These updates to Matter should continue the trend of moving these features away from having to have apps for each gadget. That’s a big deal! I hope to a host of Matter 1.4 gadgets come through The Gadgeteer as we move into the new year.
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So is that the primary issue? That you sometimes have to use the vendor’s app, vs. Home for some features?
For me, I connect my Chinese knock-off smart devices one
time with their app, grant access to Home, and never think about it again, so when I see all the angst about the connectivity standard I kinda don’t get it.
With that said, I think the majority of my dozens of devices are all on/off/dim, but the Nest(s) for example, I have to use the Nest app if I want to turn on the blower fans independent of the temp.