FabianOn 3 November, the time has come: Matter is finally to take off. To this end, the Connectivity Standards Alliance has specially invited to a media event in Amsterdam, where various manufacturers will present their Matter solutions. It is supposed to become the new smart home standard.
What exactly is Matter? It is a new standard that can combine different smart home devices from different manufacturers. A simple example: devices from the Munich-based HomeKit manufacturer Eve Systems, which previously worked exclusively in the Apple ecosystem, can then also be controlled via Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
Philips Hue is also a partner of the CSA and will support the new Matter standard. However, not via the light bulbs themselves, but via the Hue Bridge. This has the advantage that all older lamps will be compatible with Matter. I have summarised more on this topic for you in this article.
Two Hue Bridges can merge thanks to Matter
Matter could also be exciting for those who have more than one Hue Bridge active in the home. With the firmware update and Matter, these bridges can merge.
“The Matter standard could allow a Matter controller to combine Philips Hue devices across multiple bridges into a single view in a similar way to how example HomeKit does today,” says George Yianni, the inventor of Philips Hue. “What functionality is offered is up to the Matter controller.”
At first, that doesn't sound like Philips Hue will integrate such a capability directly into its app. But third-party providers, such as iConnectHue, would make it possible, for example, to use a switch on the first bridge to also switch lights on the second bridge.
Of course, such an integration will not be ready directly at the launch of Matter. It is also unclear which commands can be sent via the Matter network – HomeKit, for example, offers far fewer switch functions. In any case, the new standard gives us a little hope…
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I really don’t understand philips reluctance to add this kind of multihub feature or sell a Hub V3 with larger connection list.
It can only sell more products in the long run & it doesn’t seem difficult to do.
I’m blocked by the 12 accessories limit at the moment.
I’d like to add additional lights and have a separate hub for outdoors.
I want to do this in the hue app (functionality is nice and works reliably) rather than Alexa which has a horrible interface, setup and maintenance experience.
I don’t think Matter will actually improve this kind of experience.
I’d also imagine philips won’t expose their switches & sensors to external devices with matter (the same as the current implementation) which again limits the kind of integration it will give you.
This is really disappointing & I really dont understand why they don’t jump at this because for me the business case for doing it is there.
I’d buy a new hub for €100 if it would mean I could integrate my entire house into one single environment.