When the Connectivity Standards Alliance launched Matter in November 2022, the pitch was simple: your smart home devices would finally work with each other regardless of brand. No more choosing between Apple, Google, and Amazon ecosystems. No more devices that stop working when the vendor’s cloud goes down. Just local, secure, interoperable IoT that actually behaves like infrastructure rather than a subscription service.

That was a compelling promise, and the smart home industry — exhausted by years of fragmentation — bought it. Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, and hundreds of device makers all signed on. Over 1,100 devices are now Matter-certified. So in 2026, is the promise holding up?

Mostly. With caveats.

What Matter actually does

The confusion around Matter mostly comes from unclear expectations about what the standard actually covers.

Matter is an application layer protocol. It defines how devices advertise their capabilities, how controllers discover them, and how they communicate — but it doesn’t mandate a specific radio standard. Matter runs over Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and Thread (a low-power mesh networking protocol designed for battery-operated IoT devices). The radio layer matters a lot in practice, because Thread requires a Thread Border Router, and not every Matter device supports Thread.

The local operation promise is real. Matter devices communicate directly with controllers on your local network without routing through vendor cloud infrastructure. If your internet goes down, Matter lights still switch on. If a vendor shuts down their cloud service, Matter devices still function. This is a genuine improvement over most previous smart home platforms.

The ecosystem neutrality promise is also mostly real. A Matter light bulb should work in Apple Home, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa simultaneously — or in a local controller like Home Assistant. In practice, there are still rough edges in how different controllers handle Matter devices, but the fundamental multi-controller capability works.

What’s changed with Matter 1.3 and 1.5

Matter 1.0 shipped with a relatively limited set of device types: lights, plugs, switches, thermostats, window coverings, and door locks. Fine for the basics, but the smart home ecosystem is broader than that.

Matter 1.3, finalised in 2024 and rolling into products through 2025–26, added energy management device types — EV charger controls, solar system integration, smart meter interfaces, and battery storage systems. For anyone building a home energy management system around solar panels and an EV charger, this is significant. The prospect of a single protocol handling both the smart thermostat and the EV charger is more useful than it sounds.

Matter 1.5, released in early 2026, extends the device type library further and tightens the interoperability testing requirements. Starting in 2026, all Matter certification requires passing the Alliance Interop Test — a more rigorous multi-vendor interoperability check than what was required at launch. This should progressively close the gap between “certified” and “actually works reliably with everything.”

Camera and video doorbell device types are expected in a near-term future release — a conspicuous gap given how central cameras are to most smart home setups.

Thread: the part that still needs attention

Thread is the transport layer that makes Matter most useful for battery-operated devices — sensors, buttons, contact sensors, smoke detectors. Wi-Fi is fine for mains-powered devices, but it’s too power-hungry for a battery door sensor you want to run for years on a coin cell.

Thread works on a mesh network, which requires a Thread Border Router — typically built into a smart speaker (Apple HomePod, Google Nest Hub Max, Amazon Echo 4th gen, Nanoleaf thread-capable devices). The transition to Thread 1.4 in 2026 standardises how Border Routers share network credentials, meaning new Border Routers should join an existing Thread mesh rather than creating competing meshes. That’s been a significant pain point: before standardised credential sharing, adding a new Border Router often created a separate Thread network that wouldn’t interoperate.

The practical advice: before buying Thread-based Matter sensors, check whether you have a Thread Border Router on your network. If you don’t, Thread devices will still work over Matter via Thread to the Border Router, but you need at least one.

Where it still falls short

Scenes and automations. Matter doesn’t currently define a standard for cross-device automations — a “goodnight” scene that dims lights, locks the door, and adjusts the thermostat is still implemented differently by every controller. You can set it up in Apple Home or Google Home, but it’s not portable between them. This is a known limitation and something future Matter versions will address, but it’s currently real.

Device commissioning. Adding a Matter device to your network is better than it was, but it’s still not frictionless. QR code scanning, Thread network joining, and multi-controller setup can still produce confusing failures. The experience varies substantially by device and by which controller app you use.

Vendor differentiation. Because Matter standardises the basics, some vendors implement proprietary features that only work within their own ecosystem. That Philips Hue effect you paid for might only be accessible through the Hue app, not through your Matter controller of choice. This isn’t a violation of the Matter spec — it’s entirely within the rules — but it blurs the “any controller” promise in practice.

Should you build around Matter now?

Yes, if you’re starting from scratch or making significant purchases. The ecosystem is large enough and stable enough that Matter-certified devices are a safer bet for longevity than proprietary alternatives. The local operation guarantee is genuinely valuable.

For developers or tinkerers building IoT systems, Matter is worth integrating with — particularly for home energy management applications, where the 1.3+ device types open up real possibilities. The open-source Matter SDK (available from the CSA) and Home Assistant’s Matter integration are both mature enough to build on.

Just go in with realistic expectations. Matter has solved the fragmentation problem structurally — but smoothness of experience still varies, cameras are still missing, and automations aren’t standardised. It’s a solid foundation, not a finished product.