The latest version of Matter (v1.3) has arrived. It supports more smart home device types and routines, and that support could come to SmartThings in the future.
Matter is a smart home device standard jointly developed by Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung, and other consumer electronics brands.
Matter 1.3 brings support for ten new device types, energy management, and scenes
Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) has released the Matter 1.3 standard today. It now supports the several smart kitchen appliances, electric vehicle (EV) chargers, sensors, and valves. All the newly supported smart devices are listed below.
- Cooktops
- Dryers
- Electric Vehicle Chargers
- Extractor Hoods
- Freeze Detectors
- Microwave Ovens
- Ovens
- Leak Detectors
- Rain Sensors
- Water Valves
With these additions, Matter now supports almost all types of commonly found smart home devices. Remember, Matter 1.2 already brought support for a host of device types in December 2023, including air purifiers, air quality sensors, dishwashers, fans, refrigerators, robotic vacuum cleaners, room air conditioners, and smoke detecting alarms.
In addition to support for new device types, Matter 1.3 also supports energy tracking and scenes. Energy tracking allows users to track energy usage of the device throughout the day. Scenes allow users to batch several actions together. For example, you can create a scene in which an AC turns on when the room temperature reaches a particular level.
Improved Matter Cast
Moreover, TVs that support Matter can now display notifications about other Matter devices. For example, your smart TV can display when the washing machine finishes a laundry load. Matter 1.3 now supports improved Matter Cast, a protocol similar to AirPlay and Google Cast, allowing audio, images, and videos to be cast to a compatible smart display or TV. It now allows multiple clients to be connected, and the experience can be different for each user, depending on the use case.
This makes Matter Cast a great, open alternative to AirPlay and Google Cast. However, Amazon is the only one that is adding support for Matter Cast. Fire TV devices and the Echo Show 15 are now getting support for Matter Cast. The Prime Video app for smartphones and tablets is also getting Matter Cast support. No other brand is supporting Matter Cast as of now, and it would be great if Samsung added support for this new casting protocol to all its laptops, phones, tablets, and TVs.
One disappointment is that Matter still doesn't support security cameras and video doorbells. In the next release, Matter will support heat pumps, water heaters, and solar panels. Another disappointment is that none of the brands have added support for Matter 1.2, let alone Matter 1.3, even six months after its release.
Samsung may add Matter 1.3 support to SmartThings
Samsung is among the important contributors to Matter, and its SmartThings platform supports Matter. However, it still doesn't support Matter 1.2, and the company might need months more to add the new version of Matter to its smart home device platform. Samsung's smart home devices don't support Matter, though, which is worrying.
Home Assistant and SmartThings are the two platforms that are ahead of the others (Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Home) in supporting Matter, but Samsung itself isn't adding Matter support to its own home appliances. If Matter is to be successful, all its primary promoters must ensure that all their new devices support Matter.
Watch our hands-on video of Samsung's new smart TVs below. These TVs act as SmartThings Hub (and Matter Hub) and can control compatible smart home devices.
Matter can be extremely helpful to Samsung. For example, Samsung TVs currently don't support Google Cast, so casting audio and video to its TVs from non-Samsung Android devices is unreliable. If Samsung adds support for Matter Cast to all its audio and video products, it could help improve the sales of its devices.
Hopefully, Samsung will add support for Matter 1.3 to SmartThings in the coming months. This could potentially push other brands to improve Matter support, which will, in turn, expand Matter's reach and help consumers worldwide.
