The Matter Home Standard Adds Smart Speakers to the Mix — But It’s Not What You Think

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About five years ago, several leading smart home companies joined forces to promise greater interoperability of home accessories. The group, which includes Apple, Amazon, Google, and others, formed a working group known as Projected Connector Home Over IP, or “Project CHIP,” to create a standard by which all smart home accessories could work together regardless of whether folks were using Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, or something else entirely.
This standard became known as Matter, and while it’s been available for Apple users since iOS 16 was released in late 2022, it’s been a slower rollout that hasn’t turned out to be the silver bullet many had hoped for.
For one thing, Matter was never intended to let existing accessories magically work across home automation ecosystems. Instead, Matter is a new protocol that accessories must be built to support from the ground up. Existing lights, door locks, and smart outlets designed for a specific platform, like Alexa or HomeKit, will still be limited to those platforms. Some devices can receive firmware upgrades to receive Matter support, but as a rule, you’ll need to buy new devices if you want cross-platform support.
That’s not necessarily a big problem, as most folks are already happy with whatever home automation platform they’re using. One of Matter’s most significant benefits is that folks will have more new devices to choose from than ever. That especially applies to HomeKit users, who have traditionally gotten the short end of the stick thanks to Apple’s stricter requirements.

However, the other problem with Matter is that, much like HomeKit, it didn’t encompass every type of home automation device right out of the gate. Nor does it bridge different home automation systems. You won’t be able to build a smart home easily made up of devices that respond to both Siri and Alexa commands — at least not without setting up two parallel systems and adding your Matter accessories to both — so you still need to pick your preferred platform and ideally stick with it.
This all means that a HomePod is still a HomeKit-only device, and an Amazon Echo is only suitable for talking to Alexa, and never shall the twain meet. If you add an Echo speaker to your home network, you’ll only be able to control lights that have been added to Alexa, and your HomePod will only control those lights that are set up in Apple’s Home app — even if your home is 100% equipped with Matter devices.
Even though Matter is constantly adding support for new devices, this isn’t something we expect will change, as Matter is built to unify accessories, not systems. This week, the folks at Matter told The Verge that the standard is expanding to embrace more types of smart speakers, but this doesn’t mean you’ll be calling up Alexa from your HomePod anytime soon.

According to Chris LaPré, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, “a new streaming speaker device type and related controls” is being developed that could allow for new features like music playback, doorbell alerts, or even sound recognition. However, this is aimed at a new category of speakers intended as audio destinations, not sources of voice commands.
In other words, Sonos or Bose speakers could be used for media playback, alarms, or notifications, but a HomePod, Echo, or Nest aren’t on the table. That’s because these speakers are considered Matter Controllers, not endpoint devices like lights and switches. In fact, this means that the new support wouldn’t even let you receive Matter notifications on a HomePod, at least not unless Apple and the CSA cook up a way to let these speakers fulfill dual roles.
Meanwhile, Apple reportedly has some big plans to finally expand its own home ecosystem over the next year or so, including an iPad-like Apple Home Hub, a smart home security camera, and a doorbell with Face ID. We’re also expecting a new HomePod mini to arrive next year, complete with a new Apple-designed Wi-Fi chip that could enhance its in-home capabilities in some interesting ways. Perhaps this will also be built to take advantage of some new Matter features.