Can you believe that the Matter smart home standard was launched just over two years ago? Its promise – to improve the smart home, letting disparate devices talk to each other using defined standards and direct control.
To some extent, the protocol has achieved its aims, and there are a growing number of devices that support it, including the new Tado X thermostat, lots of smart plugs, and, via update, the Philips Hue lights. More devices are becoming available every day.
When Matter gets things right, it’s great. Using a direct connection for control, rather than via a web-based API, device control is faster and should be as quick as using the device’s own app. I found that with Tado X, control of a thermostat, via SmartThings or Apple Home, was pretty much instant.
Yet, Matter is rarely at its best in these early days, with the technology moving slowly and failing to keep up with new product categories while managing devices can often be a frustrating experience.
Here are a few things that Matter needs to do better.
Make it easier to add multiple devices at once
Adding Matter devices to a compatible system, such as Apple Home, Alexa or SmartThings, isn’t always as easy as one might hope, and it all comes down to how the system is built. The easiest way to add devices to a Matter system is if they’re already connected to a hub, such as with Philips Hue lights.
With the Hue Matter integration, the Hue Bridge is added to a Matter platform, and then all connected light bulbs are detected and added in one go. That’s a pretty speedy integration.
If you have a system with individual devices and no unifying hub, then every single device must be added individually. Take Tado X as an example.
Once I had the system running, I had to add each smart radiator thermostat to Apple Home one at a time. With nine individual thermostats, that job took the best part of an hour.
If you wanted to deck your home out with Thread-compatible light bulbs and use them through a Matter-compatible system, you could be looking at individually adding tens of devices.
With web connections, such as an Alexa Skill, adding multiple devices at once is far faster. I’d like a way of opening up a native app, such as Tado X, and then selecting an option to export all devices to a Matter system in one go.
Make it easier to add devices to multiple systems
If you have multiple smart home systems that you want to use, Matter promises that devices can be connected to multiple Controllers. You’d think that would be as simple as scanning the device’s Matter code again, right?
Wrong.
The Matter code on a device is only used to connect to the first Controller. After that, you must go to your Matter-compatible app, select the device you want and then turn on Pairing mode. This generates a new Matter code, which you need for the second Matter system.
And, even then, things aren’t that easy. I added a Tado X smart TRV to Apple Home, and then put it into pairing mode, so I could add it to SmartThings. The new code worked, but first of all the TRV had to be added to iCloud, which meant that I had to give the device yet another name, even though it’s properly named in both the Tado app and the Home app.
It all feels needlessly complicated, and there are times when things don’t work as expected. I’ve had a smart plug that wouldn’t connect to SmartThings because I’d added it to Apple Home first; adding to SmartThings and then sharing to Apple Home did work.
As each device has to be shared individually (unless, as above, your devices are connected via a hub), it takes even longer to add devices to a second system than a first one.
The majority of people probably use one system only, but for those of us who need multiple platform support, the Matter standard needs to have an easier way to manage this.
Speed up device support
Matter uses a series of defined device types, such as lights, bridges, locks, switches and thermostats. These device types define the type of control that’s available, creating a uniform set of controls that are the same across different smart home systems.
That’s neat in theory, but it means that before a device can be added to a system, there needs to be a matching Matter device type. Both the Matter standard and the controlling software require updates to support new device types, and this is often very slow to happen.
And, even then, manufacturers can be slow to release the necessary firmware updates. Take robot vacuum cleaners, for example. The Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra launched with the promise that it was Matter compatible, only at the time of launch there was no Matter device type for robots.
Even when the device type was defined, support for robot vacuum cleaners in Matter software has been slow to come, and the S8 MaxV Ultra now needs a firmware update for compatibility.
Over time, things will get better, but Matter needs to move faster at this early stage to ensure better device support.
Have a broader range of device control
Not only does Matter move slowly, but the device types severely limit the range of available controls, particularly on more complicated devices. With each defined device type, there’s a set range of controls available, such as on/off, colour control and brightness control for a light switch. With that example, that’s largely enough.
If you finally get a Matter dishwasher, then there’s support for basic remote control, but you won’t get all of the wash cycles on offer. I understand that having clear, defined device types helps with control, but it feels as though Matter needs to be more powerful, and devices should be able to communicate a wider range of controls, such as a list of wash cycles that a dishwasher has available.
Similarly, the thermostat device type is very basic. With Tado X, I can see a TRV’s current temperature and adjust the target temperature, but Matter doesn’t let me set how long the temperature should be set for, and it doesn’t let me revert to the thermostat’s schedule.
That can make it fiddly to achieve some simple things. For example, I’d like to be able to use a Philips Hue motion sensor to detect motion in a room and then set the TRV to a comfortable temperature automatically; when no motion is detected, I’d like the TRV to resume its normal schedule. There’s currently no way to do this.
Implement group control
Finally, Matter brings in individual devices, but it can’t bring in the wider group control that the native apps provide. For example, I can’t set my Tado X system to Home or Away mode using Apple Home; I can only control individual devices and, even then, a change to a target temperature only lasts for the time period defined in the app.
I also found that Philips Hue scenes weren’t available when I connected them via Matter, which limits the usefulness of voice control. I’d say that the Alexa Hue Skill is actually better than the equivalent Matter option. In many ways, Matter can be less powerful than using the old web API, even if that control is slightly slower.
