Smart Home Ecosystem Interoperability This Year as Project CHIP Becomes Matter

With the first Project CHIP specification finalized and ready for testing, compliant smart home devices are set for commercial availability by the end of 2021. The new timeline was announced during the rebranding announcements, which will see the Zigbee Alliance becoming the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) and in turn, rebranding Project CHIP, which it orchestrated, as Matter.

The delivery of the specification this year is significant because the rightly heralded, industry-backed application layer specification will be key to simplifying smart home device interoperability and drawing greater consumer and industry investment in smart home. Along with vendors’ expectations for 2021 product delivery, a number of features of the new specification signal new capabilities within the market.

As part of its transition from being the Zigbee Alliance, long responsible for the development of Zigbee, the CSA will transition to hosting the development of a number of connectivity approaches rather than just Zigbee. Zigbee Alliance members will roll into the rebranded organizations, although the group does foresee future delineation between those members focused just on a single protocol rather than the group’s broad coverage. The organization says it will expand its standards work to an additional three or four connectivity protocols for the smart home, although those are yet to be detailed.

The CSA turned to brand specialists as well as those companies engaged in Project CHIP regarding the naming and branding of the new Matter connectivity specification. The new name and new logo will enable OEMs to simplify consumer purchasing by providing assurance through compliance and a logo on product details that ensures new smart home devices will work with any smart home platform that complies to Matter specifications. These platforms will include Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s HomeKit, Google Assistant, Samsung’s SmartThings, Tuya platform, and more.

CSA members poised to be early adopters of Matter include Amazon, ASSA ABLOY, Comcast, Espressif Systems, Eve Systems, Google, Grundfos Holding A/S, Huawei, Infineon Technologies, LEEDARSON, Legrand, Nanoleaf, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductors, Qorvo, Resideo, Schlage, Schneider Electric, Signify, Silicon Labs, SmartThings, Somfy, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Tuya Smart, ubisys, Wulian, and Zumtobel Group. Managed as an open-source project on GitHub, the specification will be available to both CSA members and non-members. The benefits of membership will be in the ability to take part in the development process itself. Launched at the end of 2019, the Project CHIP initiative initially had the backing of 15 founding members and now, according to the CSA, there are more than 180 member organizations engaged in the project.

Given the promise of the new Matter specification and its ability to be leveraged over a number of protocols (the first specification release of the Matter protocol will run on Wi-Fi and Thread network layers and will use Bluetooth Low Energy for commissioning), the decision to broaden the Alliance brand is understandable. The value of branding is seldom overlooked, but, though strategic, it isn’t always a key to success. Matter will be a major brand in the development and expansion of the smart home market, not because of the name, or even the logo design, but because of the importance of the specification to the smart home market, the momentum behind its development, and most of all the significant industry backing the development has drawn and the specification will continue to enjoy. The commitment to delivering the specification has been solid from the start and the speed of the specification’s development has been notable. Given the heft of the smart home players engaged in the development and delivery of the specification, there will be significant marketing support to make the brand recognizable.

Following the base specification being ratified by the Projects Working Group early in May, Hue, for one, says to expect products on shelves this year. The first wave of specifications cover a wide range of smart home devices and beyond, but some key specifications are not yet included. The first specification will cover lighting and electrical (e.g., light bulbs, luminaires, controls, plugs, outlets), HVAC controls (e.g., thermostats, AC units), access controls (e.g., door locks, garage doors), safety and security (e.g., sensors, detectors, security systems), window coverings/shades, TVs, access points, and bridges. However, there is no provision so far for security cameras, a key smart home device. Also missing is any specification for appliances, consumer robotics, or wearable devices.

A significant aspect of the Matter specification is the ability for end users to select and enable platform control on a device-by-device basis. That feature—dubbed Multi-Admin—means, for example, the ability to add a Google product such as the popular Nest thermostat under the control of Apple Homekit while not having to add all Google Assistant-managed devices into HomeKit. This could be key in enabling smart home users to engage and have greater choice in the data they choose to share with platform providers and subsequently making platform providers look to distinguish their offerings with their data and privacy management.

The Matter specification is set to have wide-ranging impact on the appeal of smart home investments by consumers and vendors alike. It could also provide impetus and precedent for greater standardization further up in the smart home data stream. Just as standardization between devices lifts confidence in investing in smart home devices because they are not tied to a single ecosystem, so the availability of smart home data upstream of the smart home platform can help draw in a range of adjacent industries and services to leverage smart home data to enable new efficiencies and services. We examine this topic in the recent ABI Research report Transformational Smart Home Data Exchange.