Matter is a royalty-free, IP-based connectivity standard for smart home devices, developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance to let products from different manufacturers work together across ecosystems such as Apple Home, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa.
Matter originated in December 2019 as Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP), a working group founded by Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance—the body since renamed the Connectivity Standards Alliance—and reached its first public release in October 2022. Rather than introduce a new radio, it runs over existing IP networks: Wi-Fi and Ethernet for high-bandwidth devices and the low-power Thread mesh for battery-operated ones, with Bluetooth Low Energy used only to commission a device onto the network. Certification and interoperability are verified through the Alliance's own lab testing.
The standard's defining feature is multi-admin control: a single certified device can be paired to several ecosystems at once, so the same bulb or sensor answers to Apple Home, Google Home, and Alexa without brand-specific hubs or bridges. This directly targets the fragmentation that long defined the 📝Internet of Things (IoT), where incompatible protocols locked devices into isolated apps. Matter's scope has widened release by release from lighting, plugs, locks, and thermostats toward cameras, appliances, and energy management, positioning it as the connective layer beneath the consumer smart home rather than a competitor to any one platform.