What you need to know
- Matter, the standard that has a goal of making all smart home devices and platforms interoperable, has a new update.
- The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) revealed the new Matter 1.3 update today, which adds support for more kinds of devices.
- New to this release is support for more home appliances, like stovetops and dryers, as well as EV chargers.
Matter has lofty goals, aiming to make all sorts of smart home devices and ecosystems play nice with each other. The rollout of Matter has been slow, but the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) that develops the standard continues expanding its reach. In a blog post on Wednesday, May 8, the CSA released the next version of Matter, known as Matter 1.3. The update adds support for new kinds of devices, such as home appliances and electric vehicle chargers.
The biggest part of Matter 1.3 is the inclusion of new energy management features. EV chargers will be the first type of device to benefit from Matter 1.3's new energy management system, but it will likely come to others in the future. The CSA says that Matter 1.3 enables supported accessories to "report actual and estimated measurements, including instantaneous power, voltage, current, and others, in real-time, as well as its energy consumption or generation over time."
In practice, this will help users charge more efficiently and cheaply. High-energy products, like electric vehicles, can have a big impact on their owner's energy bill when they are charged at peak usage times. That's why scheduling EV charging at times when energy usage is typically low can be an excellent cost-saving measure.
With Matter 1.3, supported EV chargers can be controlled over the internet for uses like manually starting or stopping a charging session. Other uses include adjusting the rate of EV charging and to "specify how many miles of range to be added by a set departure time."
Aside from energy management, the CSA says Matter 1.3 also adds support for water management devices. These include "leak and freeze detectors, rain sensors, and controllable water valves."
Matter 1.3 opens the door for more smart home appliances to be released with Matter support, building upon existing support for washing machines, which was added with Matter 1.2. Five new appliances are supported: microwaves, ovens, cooktops, vent hoods, and laundry dryers.
Finally, the latest release improves integration between Matter-equipped TVs and other devices. For example, you might someday get a push notification on your TV that your laundry has finished drying.
This all requires widespread adoption of Matter to make a meaningful difference, and that's supposedly coming. The issue with Matter thus far is the pace at which it is being added to new products and existing software platforms. That will still apply to Matter 1.3 because the release only covers the new specification. No new products are ready to release with Matter 1.3 just yet, and it'll take time for manufacturers to ship home appliances and EV chargers with Matter support.
"Looking ahead to the fall release and beyond, we anticipate support for enhancements benefiting all users and devices, including new categories of devices, and enabling users to start, grow, and maintain their secure smart home with smart home-focused networking infrastructure," the CSA said.
