Matter launched around a year ago, and its newly released 1.2 update is bringing tons of improvements to the interoperability standard. The biggest improvement is expanded access, with Matter now supported by nine more different types of devices, including fridges, dishwashers, laundry machines, air purifiers, robot vacuums, and other common smart home gadgets.
While Matter has long been praised for its ability to connect products designed for different ecosystems (allowing you to use HomeKit items with Amazon Alexa, for example), it was held back by its limited rollout. When it first launched, only a handful of categories were supported — such as smart bulbs, smart plugs, and smart sensors.
Update 1.2 is changing that. Here’s a look at all the new smart home device types now supported by Matter.
- Refrigerators
- Dishwashers
- Laundry washers
- Air purifiers
- Room air conditioners
- Robot vacuums
- Fans
- Air quality sensors
- Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms
Aside from adding support for these groups, Matter has seen core improvements to its underlying software (such as semantic tags to help program controls and the use of generic descriptions to make it easy to generate new device types). These changes aren’t nearly as exciting, but they’ll help developers roll out features faster and with more accuracy.
Now that Matter 1.2 is available to everyone, the team is focused on big changes for 2024. According to the official blog from the Connectivity Standards Alliance, it’s expecting Matter to “continue to expand” at a rapid pace throughout 2024.
“Turning the calendar to 2024, Matter will continue to expand its footprint across the smart home, across the [Internet of Things] ecosystem, and in the minds of consumers. New products will come to market, filling out existing Matter device types and being among the first in the new Matter device types debuting with Matter 1.2. We expect that Matter will receive two new updates next year as part of the biannual release cadence — which should add even more device types and expand into new areas.”
