How It Works
Matter is a universal standard for the smart home. It helps devices from different brands work together more consistently, giving you more choice, more flexibility, and a much smoother experience as you start, or expand your smart home.
What is Matter Exactly?
Matter is not another app or system that you’ll need. It’s a common language that smart home devices can use to communicate. When two devices “speak” Matter, they can understand each other, even if they come from different brands.
This means things like Matter lights, thermostats, locks, sensors, TVs, or plugs can be set up, or be controlled by the Matter-compatible apps or smart home ecosystems that you like to use, with more freedom to build your smart home with devices from different brands that best suit your needs.
Matter and Your Smart Home
A smart home is a collection of connected devices that can work together to help make your home more comfortable, safe, efficient, or responsive for everyone in it.
You can control these devices through apps, voice assistants, automations, physical controls like buttons, or a mix of these. Your smart home might start with a single app or a preferred ecosystem, or use several – the choice is yours.
Matter’s role is to make that experience smoother. Matter enables devices to be set up through helpful, consistent experiences, and to be controlled by more than one app or ecosystem at a time.
Making Your Smart Home Easy
Setting up a Matter device is easy: simply plug it in or turn it on, and use your device’s or ecosystem’s app to scan the unique Matter QR code, enter the numeric code, or even tap an NFC tag, and then follow the brief on-screen steps.
When you set up your Matter device with a smart home ecosystem, it gets connected to that ecosystem’s Matter Controller, which is often built into devices you may already own, such as smart speakers, smart displays, routers, or TVs.
For most simple Matter devices, the setup experience is the same, so after you’ve done this once, you’ll know how to set up any other Matter device in the future.
The Brain of Your Smart Home
Every Matter home needs a Matter Controller to manage and coordinate your devices. The great news is that you may already have one! Matter Controllers are often built into apps, smart speakers, smart hubs, Wi-Fi routers, smart displays, and even TVs.
By simplifying setup and control, Matter allows you to focus on the things you want your smart home to do, not on how to make them work.
Shared Control
Smart homes need to work for the whole household, not just the person who set them up. Matter’s Multi-Admin feature means that after a new smart home device, such as light or a lock, is set up on one ecosystem, you can then connect those devices to other apps or ecosystems.
This gives everyone the flexibility to use the app or voice assistant that works for them.
The Universal Language For Your Devices
Matter allows you to build and grow your smart home with confidence and the flexibility to choose the products that work best for your home.
Simple, Consistent, Connected
Matter helps reduce complexity by using a consistent setup process across devices, and the apps and ecosystems that you already use
How Secure Is Matter?
Matter is built to protect your home, your network, and your data
Interoperability Explained
Flexibility to choose the products you want, that best work for your home
Jargon Busted
Don’t let technical talk get in the way of your seamless smart home. Whether you’re wondering what a ‘Border Router’ actually does or how ‘Multi-Admin’ changes your daily routine, our jargon buster provides quick, clear definitions for the most important concepts in the Matter standard.
Administrator
Think of the Administrator as the manager or brain of your smart home network. It’s the device or app that sets up the rules and security permissions for all your Matter devices.
Controller
This is the device or app that you use to control your Matter devices. This function is often built into smart home hubs, phones, or smart speakers.
Ecosystem
A full smart home system offered by a brand, such as Google Home, Apple Home, or Amazon Alexa, that is designed to connect to and control Matter devices from many different companies.
Internet Protocol (IP)
This is the fundamental technology that powers the entire internet. Matter uses IP as its backbone so that all your devices can speak the same language over one single home network.
Setup Code
The unique code or label found on every Matter device that you use to securely and consistently add it to your smart home network.
Thread
A wireless network technology designed specifically for small, battery-powered devices. It creates a reliable, self-healing mesh network and connects to your home network through a Thread Border Router.
Matter FAQs
We’ve got answers. Explore our most frequently asked questions about setting up and using Matter in your home.
