Matter 1.3: The Update That Finally Makes Multi-Admin Work
Matter was supposed to solve smart home interoperability. Buy a device, and it works with Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings simultaneously. That was the pitch at launch. The reality, as anyone who has tried to use Matter devices across multiple platforms can tell you, has been messier. Multi-admin — the feature that lets you pair a single device to multiple platforms at the same time — was technically supported from Matter 1.0 but practically broken in most implementations. Matter 1.3, released this month, finally addresses the core issues. I have been testing it for two weeks, and the difference is real.
What Was Broken
The multi-admin promise of Matter is that you pair your smart light to Apple Home, then also pair it to Google Home, and both platforms can control it independently. Your spouse uses Siri, you use Google Assistant, and the same light responds to both. In the early Matter days (versions 1.0 and 1.1), this process was painful. Each platform had different pairing flows. Some devices could only be paired to one additional platform after the initial setup. The pairing process itself would frequently fail, requiring factory resets and starting over. And even when it worked, there were synchronization issues — you would turn a light off in Apple Home and Google Home would still show it as on.
I wrote about this frustration earlier this year when I tried to set up a full Matter home with multi-admin across Apple Home and Home Assistant. About a third of my devices would not pair to the second platform at all. The ones that did pair had state sync issues that made them unreliable. It was bad enough that I gave up and went back to native protocol connections for most devices.
What Matter 1.3 Changes
The core improvement in Matter 1.3 is a reworked multi-admin commissioning flow. The technical details are dense, but the practical upshot is that adding a device to a second (or third) platform is now more standardized. Device manufacturers have clearer guidelines for how their devices should handle multi-admin requests, which means fewer failed pairing attempts and better state synchronization between platforms.
The state sync improvement is the most noticeable change in daily use. When I turn off a light from Apple Home, Home Assistant reflects the change within about one second. Previously, the delay could be 5-10 seconds, or the state would not sync at all until I manually refreshed. The improvement comes from changes in how Matter handles subscription reports between fabrics (Matter's term for platforms/ecosystems). Instead of each platform polling for state changes, devices now proactively push state updates to all connected platforms when something changes.
Matter 1.3 also expands the device types supported by the standard. New categories include water leak and freeze detection sensors, electric vehicle chargers, and networked energy management devices (like whole-home energy monitors). The sensor additions are particularly welcome — water leak sensors are one of the most practical smart home devices, and having them supported natively in Matter means they will work across platforms without proprietary bridges.
My Testing Experience
I retested my Matter setup with firmware updates that add Matter 1.3 support on several devices: Nanoleaf Essentials bulbs, Eve Motion sensor, Yale Assure Lock 2, and an Aqara door sensor. All devices were paired first to Apple Home, then commissioned to Home Assistant via the Matter integration.
The multi-admin pairing success rate was dramatically better. All four device types paired to both platforms on the first attempt. Previously, the Eve Motion sensor would consistently fail on the second pairing and the Yale lock was hit-or-miss. The improved commissioning flow is clearly working.
State synchronization is noticeably faster and more reliable. Light on/off states sync within 1-2 seconds across platforms. The door sensor reports open/close events to both platforms simultaneously. The lock state updates are slightly slower (2-3 seconds) but consistent, which is acceptable for a security device. I have been running this dual-platform setup for two weeks without a single missed state sync, which would have been unthinkable six months ago.
What Is Still Missing
Matter 1.3 is a meaningful improvement, but it does not solve everything. Camera support is still not part of the Matter specification (it is expected in a future version, but no firm timeline). Robot vacuum support was added in Matter 1.2 but manufacturer adoption is still limited. Energy monitoring through smart plugs is supported but few manufacturers have updated their plugs to report energy data through Matter — most still require their proprietary app for energy stats.
The biggest remaining gap is Thread border router coordination. If you have Thread border routers from multiple ecosystems (an Apple TV, a Google Nest Hub, and an Echo 5th gen, for example), the border routers can step on each other when managing the Thread network. Matter 1.3 improves this somewhat with better border router discovery, but the coordination between ecosystems is still not seamless. My advice: pick one ecosystem's border routers as your primary Thread infrastructure rather than mixing brands.
Should You Care
If you have been avoiding Matter because of early reliability issues, Matter 1.3 is worth a second look. The multi-admin experience has gone from "barely works" to "works well enough for daily use." The device ecosystem is growing, with major manufacturers (Aqara, Eve, Nanoleaf, Yale, Schlage, Belkin) all actively shipping Matter-compatible firmware updates.
If you are currently running a single-platform smart home and have no desire to use multiple ecosystems, Matter is less relevant to you. The native Zigbee, Z-Wave, or WiFi connections through your platform of choice are still more mature and offer more device options. Matter's primary value is cross-platform compatibility, and if you do not need that, you are not missing much by sticking with what works.
For anyone building a new smart home from scratch in late 2024, I would start with Matter/Thread devices where available and fill gaps with Zigbee. The trajectory is clear — Matter is getting better with each revision, the device ecosystem is expanding, and the cross-platform promise is closer to reality than it has ever been. A year from now, I expect Matter to be the default recommendation for new smart home setups. We are not quite there yet, but 1.3 is the update that convinced me we are going to get there.