Sadly, those waiting for Matter to take over the world as the next big thing in “smart home” will have to wait a little longer. The CSA (Connectivity Standards Alliance), the group behind the new standard, is pushing the standard further into the year in order to work on the SDK.
The new window appears to be later in the summer. The SDK is going through further work as the standard continues to be developed to include a larger crowd of devices and companies looking to jump on board. Expanding upon what the standard will be capable of come time.
Meanwhile, other technologies like the new Z-Wave LR (Long Range) are moving forward as devices begin to roll out supporting them. This means that Matter hasn’t slowed anything else down quite yet (and it may never). However, the promise of Matter does raise a lot of hopes about near-future compatibility between various smart home ecosystems. Allowing users to expand their horizons between hundreds, if not thousands of devices that could potentially work together.
Zigbee and Z-Wave have been promising similar large-scale solutions over the years but lacked the support from many of the big companies that chose to go proprietary or IP-based routes instead. Something the CSA looks to avoid by acquiring support before releasing the standard into the wild.
Until then, we all have to continue to wait patiently to see if it even comes to light or not (or if it will get another push in schedule).
