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Matter

Matter is a new standard that aims to fix the smart home’s biggest problems: interoperability, reliability, security, and being easy to use. With Matter, your smart lights, smart lock, smart thermostat, and other smart devices will all work with together, easily. All the major smart home platforms are on board — Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings — and so are almost all the big device brands, from Philips Hue and Lutron Caseta to August, Ikea, and TP-Link. If you see the Matter logo on a product, you know it will work with any other Matter-compatible gadget in your home.

Smart home hubs: what they are and why you need one

If you’re planning a truly smart home, then you’re going to need a smart hub. Here’s what you need to know.

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The Verge
Amazon’s Echo Hub is spotted in the wild.

Eagle-eyed smart home enthusiasts have tracked down the as-yet unavailable Alexa smart home control panel.

One Reddit user found the Echo Hub at Best Buy last week, but the clerk sent him away hubless. Another recently saw a big marketing display at Lowe’s complete with an empty cage where an Echo Hub should be.

Amazon said the Hub would ship at the end of 2023. It’s February 2024 and we’re still waiting. But perhaps not for much longer ...


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The Verge
Less Wi-Fi, more Thread.

European-based Nuki is adding remote access via Thread to its newest smart locks, allowing control away from home.

Previously, and with most other smart locks, this was only possible over WiFi, requiring a dedicated bridge or regularly replacing your lock’s batteries (Wi-Fi is very power-hungry).

Thread is designed to be more stable and more efficient than Wi-Fi for battery-powered devices. Nuki says Thread remote access works with Apple Home and Home Assistant at launch via a Thread-enabled Matter controller. The company plans to bring its retrofit locks to the US later this year.


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The Verge
You can now buy Eve’s energy-monitoring, Matter-supporting smart outlet.

The $50 Eve Energy Outlet launched this week, and as a Matter-over-Thread device, is compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home, and more.

But, as Matter doesn’t support energy monitoring, you can only access its energy features through Eve’s iOS app or, if you’re an Android user, the Samsung SmartThings app. (You’d also need a SmartThings Matter Controller).

Yep, folks. We are still waiting on Matter to make everything easier.

Note: If you buy something from these links, we might get affiliate revenue.


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Verge Score

This iPod-like button could be a great smart home controller

With customizable icons and an intuitive click wheel, the Linxura solves a big problem with smart buttons. But it needs to dial up its integrations before it’s worth your money.

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TikTok
You can now preorder this block of wood that controls your smart home.

With a capacitive touch interface built into a piece of wood, the Mui Board 2 is a smart home hub with a touch of whimsy.

The new version adds support for Matter and can control your smart lights, locks, thermostats, and music as well as monitor your home’s energy use. You can write messages on it, and there’s a speaker and microphone for voice control.

The Mui Board has been about to launch since 2019, but the company says it’s coming for real this time. You can preorder it on Kickstarter for $499, with delivery in December 2024.


LG TVs will soon be Google Home smart home hubs.

At LG’s CES press conference, Erik Kay of Google came onstage to say that “LG TVs will act as hubs for Google Home, so you can easily set up and control any Matter device, see and control LG, Google, and Google Home devices right from the TV or ThinQ app.”

This means that LG TVs will act as Matter controllers for Google Home, giving you another option beyond a Google Nest Hub, Nest Mini, or Nest Wifi to use Matter devices with Google Home.


LG Quantum Dot TV
LG TVs will be Matter controllers for Google Home so you can add and control smart home devices using your TV.
Image: LG

The Verge’s 2023 in review

It was the blurst of times.

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External Link
Got a long drive this week? Interested in whether Matter will ever really work?

Then queue up this two-hour interview with Daniel Moneta in your podcast app.

Moneta, who has worked for Google Home and Samsung SmartThings, is the chair of the CSA’s Marketing and Product group. So it's his job to explain how Matter works, and he’s very good at it. He turned the hardened HomeTech.fm hosts into true believers following this interview.

As I’ve discussed, Matter has a lot of problems, but it’s encouraging to hear how they are working on solving them.


2023 in the smart home: Matter’s broken promises

The new smart home standard finally arrived this year. But poor implementation, significant backpedaling, and glacial progress have left it broken.

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Ikea support for Matter smart homes still delayed.

Despite being just “a couple of months away” over a year ago, Ikea’s Dirigera hub still can’t bridge the company’s smart home gear to Matter. Here’s the latest statement... on the matter:

We want to make sure our products meet the highest quality standards and have therefore decided to delay this functionality for some time. We simply need more development time to secure good functionality. We will provide more information when it’s time.

At least we’ve got three new affordable sensors coming.


The first robot vacuum to promise Matter support arrives.

SwitchBot’s K10 Plus is one of the smallest robot vacuums you can buy and the first to come with the promise of support for Matter. The company says it will be compatible with the new standard by the end of January through the SwitchBot Hub 2.

Launching today, the K10 Plus costs $499.99 with a special launch price of $399.99. It can also mop, has 2500Pa of suction, and comes with a teeny, tiny auto-empty/charging station.

I saw it in person at the IFA tech show in Berlin, along with SwitchBot’s more advanced S10 robot vac, and loved its compact size, which can get into tight spaces better than most full-sized bots. I’ve been testing it and will have a review soon.

We may earn affiliate revenue if you buy something from one of these links.


The Switchbot K10 Plus is a compact robot vacuum that will support Matter.
The Switchbot K10 Plus is a compact robot vacuum that will support Matter.
Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge