I’m currently in the process of building a house from the ground up. It’s odd, I’ve been doing a bunch of smart home/automation research in 2024 and to be honest, Matter never came up. It was always Zigbee, Z-wave, etc. However, in just the past couple days because of CES, all I see is Matter this, Matter that. Where was Matter in 2024? Anyway, is Matter worth standardizing and waiting for in 2025? I’m assuming the answer is ‘no’ because it’s so new and still feels ‘beta-ish’. Because my house will be finished building soon, I need to make a definite decision on what to standardize on, it’s not a ‘wait and see’ situation.
Matter does not replace existing technologies; it brings them together. You can have Matter, Zigbee, and Zwave all running together without a problem. What you may actually be asking is about Thread, which Matter runs over. Time will tell if Thread competes with Zigbee and Zwave and pushes them out of the way, but because of Matter, there’s no need to worry about it. Ecosystems will offer interoperability. You can use all of them together.
Judy3 said:
@Lucy
What does it mean that ‘Matter brings existing technologies together’? Don’t you need a bridge to interoperate with Zigbee and Zwave devices?
Yeah, as far as I know the only relationship that Matter has to Zigbee or Z-wave is that it wants to replace them.
Matter existed in 2023 and 2024 certainly. However, few things are still not complete and breaking changes are popping up. Plus, the Matter firmware at the end device is way bigger than Zigbee/Z-Wave and it requires Thread support. You can expect more and more Matter devices when chip makers make more modules/devices available to build on them. Personally, I wouldn’t go Matter if I make a new house in 2025. I’d anticipate a switch to Matter in the future (that means put some ethernet cables more, or put neutral in the switch together with live) though.
Matter is really just an agreement between manufacturers that says, they will expose basic functionality amongst one another. That’s it. So an ACME bulb should work with a WidgetCo hub. But even if it ‘works’, one can expect it’ll be limited functionality, because it’s more of a dog and pony show than a true, real, bona fide interoperability agreement. What’s 1000x more worth landing on is stuff that is Thread compatible. Thread is the newest version of Zigbee, and most of the big guys decided to use Thread only instead of Zigbee OR Z-Wave. Zigbee is still kick ass and will not go away anytime soon. But for stuff like a bun you absolutely want Thread compatibility. Say you buy a dozen smart switches, you buy Thread compatible units. You start out with Hubitat as your central hub, but change your mind and go Apple HomeKit 2yrs later. No issue, they’ll all talk Thread. Then 2yrs later you ditch Apple and go Home Assistant, same thing, they all talk Thread so no sweat.
You will get a lot of opinions. Filter accordingly especially if no citing. Mine: Yes it’s worth standardizing on for the things it’s good at, i.e., WiFi and Thread transport. Powered sensors and devices. In practice, it should replace non-battery based Zigbee devices. Especially as small devices start to support 5GHz WiFi. Currently, small devices are all mostly 2.4GHz because of all the embedded ESP32 type SOCs. As soon as those support 5GHz, they all will and Matter will come with it, over Thread or not. I plan to keep using Z-wave for security related functions because it’s anecdotally more secure. WiFi and Bluetooth are security nightmares. So don’t use Bluetooth as transport and for WiFi, use segmented and isolated VLANs. The definition of future-proofing is betting on what will be big or standard in the future and Matter is it. It’s not going anywhere. Every second that passes, it will get bigger for the next decade. That’s why it’s big at CES, not the other alternatives. Smart home market will 10x in value over the next business cycle and Matter will be the mainstream engine. Regular people will know what Matter is but never hear of or understand Zigbee or Zwave. Don’t wait for it though for things that don’t exist yet. There will be bridges so not a big deal.
Crazy you are just now hearing about it, it’s been around for a few years, and was pretty widely talked about at last year’s CES
For devices that are on WiFi, I’d get Matter. But Zigbee and Z-Wave aren’t going away. For battery powered sensors and such, I’d stick with one of those. They’re cheap and reliable. For light switches, I recommend Innovelli, and they make switches in all flavors. Might be worth considering giving them a call and get their 2 cents on which to lean towards. Regardless of what you choose, you should also try and run as many Ethernet drops as you can since you’re starting from a clean slate. Ethernet is cheap to install when building, and Ethernet can be used to power small devices, like mmwave sensors, tablet dashboards, even some blinds. Have some pull string along with each run and conduit if you’re feeling fancy to make it easier to upgrade or replace cables in the future.
I would say don’t wait. Even once Matter is more prevalent, it will take more time to ‘be everywhere’ and it’s also an open question about whether Matter will be able to facilitate firmware updates, etc.
I installed a few Tapo Matter switches in my home recently, they all run on the WiFi band, not Thread. The only justification I have to install Matter is the price was cheaper than any Z-Wave switch I could find.
CES has products that sometimes never launch. Unless there’s a specific killer feature you’re waiting for, don’t wait. It’s always advancing.
I fully expect Matter to fragment due to companies not wanting to agree. I would just stick to the Z-Wave or Zigbee devices
Had the same problem, I found out that a lot of Zigbee devices are already ‘Matter ready’. I’m looking for this in descriptions for smart things to buy in the setup for the house.
I’d use KNX wherever possible. Wired is always better than wireless.
@MaryWhite
Matter has two big advantages: iPhones and pixel phones have thread radios in them, so they can theoretically in the future talk to your matter+thread devices directly without a hub. For WiFi devices, it introduces the concept of standard device profiles like Zigbee and Z-Wave have, which allow interoperability between devices from different brands. This isn’t better or worse than Zigbee or Z-Wave, but it’s a lot better than needing a different poorly translated app for every device you buy. Other than that, it’s not really any more complicated than Zigbee or Zwave, just different.
@MaryWhite
Yeah, I wasn’t trying to say there is an advantage for you. If you’re happy with a hub, then stick with what you’ve got. The problem that Matter is trying to solve is the people who return products to Amazon and then write a 1-star review saying ‘I didn’t know I needed a hub for this to work’. They want a lightbulb they can control from an app. If that isn’t you, then Matter isn’t going to do anything for you.
@MaryWhite
The advantage is the same as using Zigbee and Z-Wave, it keeps your devices from crowding your WiFi. You can only have so many simultaneous WiFi connections to your router. Also, the more WiFi signals floating around your house will cause congestion on your network and slow everything down
MaryWhite said:
@Ricardo
I’m sorry. I’m looking for some reason to add Thread and Matter to my system, and I’m still not seeing any benefit.
I think you are looking at it backwards. Say you want to add a device to your ecosystem but you can’t because it’s not supported. Matter will eliminate that. Your system already probably supports Matter anyway. It’s just giving you more options. You don’t have to replace your non-Matter devices. Same goes for Thread, as long as your hub supports Thread, then you can use a device that has it. It’s not really committing to one or the other. Imagine finding the perfect device for your smart home but it communicates using Thread, you’ll be glad that you have that capability. I have Matter and non-Matter devices, along with Zigbee, Thread, WiFi, and Bluetooth devices all working seamlessly in my smart home.
MaryWhite said:
@Ricardo
I’m sorry. I’m looking for some reason to add Thread and Matter to my system, and I’m still not seeing any benefit.
What ecosystem are you using?
@MaryWhite
You can’t compare Matter to Zigbee, or Z-Wave. They have nothing to do with each other. You can compare them to Thread, or WiFi or Bluetooth. Those are wireless protocols. Think of Matter more like a universal translator. It allows the devices to speak to all the different ecosystems.