The Release of Matter 1.5 Specifications: Marking a Major Step Forward for Smart Homes

In November 2025, the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) announced the release of its Matter 1.5 specifications, which introduces and/or expands Matter support for cameras, closures, and soil sensors. Additionally, the updated standard also enhances energy management capabilities of Matter-compatible devices, enabling homeowners to accurately track and optimize home energy consumption.

Perhaps, Matter support for cameras is one of the most anticipated updates for the Matter protocol. Smart camera deployments, from indoor/outdoor surveillance cameras to doorbell cameras, are key features of many smart homes, and together account for over 140 million smart home device shipments in 2025. With Matter 1.5, compatible cameras will be able to support live video/audio streaming and two-way communication, as well as multi-stream configurations, pan-tilt-zoom controls, detection and privacy zones, and flexible storage options (i.e., continuous or event-based recording).

Recognizing the importance of Matter 1.5, many smart home vendors are rushing to announce their support for the updated connectivity standard:

• Samsung SmartThings: In December 2025, Samsung announced that its smart home platform, SmartThings, now supports Matter 1.5 and that it will be pushing SmartThings updates to its existing Matter devices. The company reports that it is working with smart home vendors, such as Aqara, Eve, and Xthings, to develop Matter-compatible cameras, with commercial launches expected in March 2026.
• Aqara: At CES 2026, the company featured its latest Camera Hub G350 that supports the latest Matter 1.5 specifications. The camera is also embedded with Artificial Intelligence (AI) features that allow homeowners to track and automatically detect people and pets.
• Athom Homey: At CES 2026, the LG-owned company announced that it will be rolling out Matter 1.5 support to its Homey smart home platform. The update, which is expected in 1Q 2026, will support live streaming, two-way communications, and advanced camera control over the Homey platform.

In addition, silicon vendors, like Silicon Labs, have introduced tools (i.e., Simplicity Studio 6) and Matter Software Development Kits (SDKs) to help accelerate Matter 1.5 development and product commercialization.

While the title above—following standards while maintaining differentiation—may sound like a contradiction, it is an important strategy that smart home device vendors need to employ to succeed in the industry.

• Supporting Connectivity Standards: Certifying one’s products to standard protocols ensures that a company’s solutions continue to maintain relevance in an increasingly multi-vendor smart home environment. Guaranteed interoperability allows device vendors to focus on enhancing product features and performance, and not be concerned about whether their devices can integrate seamlessly into new smart home environments.
• Maintaining Differentiation: While supporting Matter 1.5 specifications and features is important, this does not limit the vendors’ ability to innovate and introduce additional features beyond the required standards. Vendors need to consider how their devices can address additional pain points of their customers. For example, Aqara’s Camera Hub G350 is not only Matter 1.5 compatible, but it also functions as a central hub for Aqara devices and Matter ecosystems, thereby removing the need for homeowners to install a separate standalone hub device.

The smart home industry is evolving quickly, with new standards being released at a rapid pace. For example, in addition to Matter 1.5, other connectivity standard updates in 2025 include Matter 1.4.1 and 1.4.2, as well as Zigbee 4.0. These updates are expected to accelerate smart home device adoption among households by not only expanding the scope of devices covered (e.g., introduction of long-range capabilities to support edge of property use cases) but also simplifying device onboarding processes and control. However, it is important to note that standardization also results in lower barriers to entry, which can, in turn, lead to intensifying competition in the industry. Hence, in order to thrive in this increasingly competitive environment, smart home device vendors need to not only keep up with the latest standards, but also continuously innovate to bring new features and value to their end users.