Matter Protocol: One Year Later, Was It Worth the Wait?

When Matter officially launched in October 2022, the smart home world collectively lost its mind. Finally, a universal standard that would let every device work with every ecosystem. No more checking if a bulb works with Alexa but not HomeKit. No more walled gardens. The dream.

It\'s been a full year now. Let\'s talk about what actually happened.

What Actually Shipped

In the first year, Matter support rolled out across a pretty narrow set of device categories: smart plugs, light bulbs, light switches, and door locks. That\'s... basically it. Companies like Eve, Nanoleaf, and Meross were early and aggressive with Matter firmware updates. Eve deserves special credit — they pushed Matter updates to their entire existing product line for free, which is rare in this industry.

On the platform side, Apple, Google, Samsung, and Amazon all shipped Matter support in their respective apps and hubs. Apple was arguably the most polished at launch (no surprise — they helped push Matter into existence), while Amazon\'s implementation was rougher around the edges and took several months of updates to stabilize.

What\'s Still Missing

The glaring omissions after a full year are pretty significant:

• Cameras — Not supported yet. The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) has a camera working group, but don\'t expect anything before late 2024 at the earliest.
• Robot vacuums — Also not in the spec yet. iRobot and Roborock have expressed interest but there\'s no timeline.
• Major appliances — Washers, dryers, ovens, fridges. Samsung and LG have been quiet on this front.
• Energy management — Solar inverters, EV chargers, whole-home energy monitors. A huge missed opportunity.
• Garage door openers — Being worked on, but not shipped.

The CSA has been frustratingly slow to add new device categories to the specification. Each new category requires working groups, drafts, reviews, and member votes. It\'s standards-body bureaucracy at its finest.

The Setup Experience: Better, But...

I\'ll give Matter credit here — when it works, setup is genuinely easier. Scan a QR code, the device appears in your app, done. No separate manufacturer app required for basic functionality. I set up a Nanoleaf Essentials bulb over Matter in about 45 seconds. That\'s a real improvement over the old way of doing things.

But "when it works" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. Many first-generation Matter devices shipped with firmware that was clearly rushed out the door. I personally dealt with a Meross smart plug that would lose its Matter connection every few days and need to be factory reset. Eve\'s first Matter firmware for the Eve Energy had a threading bug that caused random disconnections. These have mostly been fixed through updates, but early adopters took the brunt of it.

The Thread Border Router Mess

Matter was supposed to simplify things. In some ways, it created a new layer of complexity: Thread border routers. Thread is the low-power mesh networking protocol that many Matter devices use (as an alternative to WiFi). To use Thread devices, you need a Thread border router. Sounds simple enough — except Apple TV 4K, HomePod Mini, HomePod 2nd gen, Nest Hub 2nd gen (Max), and Echo 4th gen ALL have Thread radios. And they all implement Thread slightly differently.

In theory, Thread border routers from different manufacturers should seamlessly mesh together. In practice, I\'ve seen devices that work perfectly on an Apple Thread network but drop off when a Google border router is also present. The interoperability between Thread implementations from different companies is still a work in progress. If you\'re heavily invested in one ecosystem, stick with that ecosystem\'s border routers for now.

Multi-Admin: The Killer Feature That Kind of Works

This was supposed to be Matter\'s headline feature. Buy one smart plug, and it simultaneously appears in Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, AND Samsung SmartThings. Control it from any app. Set it up once, use it everywhere.

Multi-admin does work. I have an Eve Energy plug that\'s paired to both Apple Home and Google Home simultaneously. I can control it from either app, and state changes sync within a second or two. It genuinely feels like the future when it\'s working.

The "kind of" part: adding a device to a second ecosystem after initial setup isn\'t always intuitive. Some devices require you to open a "commissioning window" from the first app before you can add it to a second. The process varies by manufacturer and by platform. It\'s not the seamless experience the marketing promised.

Who Embraced It, Who Didn\'t

The enthusiastic adopters:

• Eve — Updated entire lineup, heavily promoted Matter. They clearly see it as their path out of the Apple-only ghetto.
• Nanoleaf — Matter support across Essentials line, Thread border router in their products.
• Meross — Several Matter-native plugs and switches at budget prices.
• Belkin/Wemo — Launched a new Matter smart plug.

The foot-draggers:

• Ring — Still zero Matter devices. Amazon\'s own subsidiary apparently didn\'t get the memo. This is baffling.
• Wyze — Promised Matter support, repeatedly delayed. At this point I\'ll believe it when I see it.
• TP-Link/Kasa — Announced Matter plans but haven\'t shipped anything yet. The Tapo line is supposedly coming first.
• Lutron — Radio silence on Matter. Caseta and RA3 remain in their own walled garden.

The Home Assistant Angle

For the Home Assistant crowd, Matter support landed as a beta feature and has been gradually improving. HA can act as both a Matter controller and (more recently) a Matter bridge — meaning you can expose non-Matter devices to other Matter controllers through HA. This is potentially huge for bringing legacy Zigbee and Z-Wave devices into the Matter world, though it\'s still experimental.

My Honest Verdict

Matter is exactly where I expected it to be after year one: promising but incomplete. The foundation is solid. The concept is right. The execution needs more time.

If you\'re buying new smart home devices today, choosing Matter-compatible ones is a reasonable hedge for the future. But I would not rip out a working smart home setup to switch to Matter. And I definitely wouldn\'t buy a device solely because it supports Matter if a non-Matter alternative is better in every other way.

The real test comes in 2024. If we see cameras, robot vacuums, and appliances join the spec — and if the big holdouts like Ring and TP-Link actually ship Matter products — then we\'ll know the standard has legs. For now, Matter is a marathon runner at mile 6. Good pace, a long way to go.

Give it another year. I\'ll check back in October 2024 with an update.