Smart home
Matter: the standard everyone was waiting for
Since 2022 there has been a common standard for the smart home. What it delivers, what it cannot do and when it matters for you.
For years the biggest problem in the smart home was not the technology but the babel of protocols: every system spoke its own. With Matter, a common standard has emerged, jointly backed by Apple, Google, Amazon and Samsung.
What Matter means in practice
A device with the Matter logo can be added to Apple Home, Google Home and Alexa – without a bridge, without a manufacturer account, without any provider controlling access. For lamps, plugs, thermostats and sensors this now works reliably.
Add to that Thread, a radio network in which the devices reinforce each other. The more permanently installed devices, the more stable the network – the opposite of the old WiFi chaos.
Where it still sticks
Complex devices are not yet fully covered: blinds with slat adjustment, multiroom audio, alarm systems and heat pumps. Anyone who wants to control such things still needs a system underneath – KNX or Loxone in a new build, Home Assistant for those who like to tinker.
Our recommendation by project
- Rented flat: Matter over radio, no intervention in the electrical installation.
- Renovation: Matter for lighting and sensors, KNX or Loxone wherever cables are being pulled anyway.
- New build: bus system as the foundation, Matter as the bridge for everything added later.
The most important advice
Do not buy the whole house at once. Start with one room where you notice every day whether it has got better. What holds there, you carry on with.
What Matter means day to day
An example: you buy a lamp with the Matter logo. You scan the code with an iPhone and the lamp appears in Apple Home. Your partner uses Android – the same lamp appears in Google Home too. No second account, no bridge, no manufacturer app.
Before Matter, this set-up either would not have worked or would have required two parallel systems.
Thread explained clearly
Thread is the radio network underneath Matter. Every permanently connected device – a plug, a light switch, a speaker – works as a repeater for the others. Battery devices such as sensors attach to it without repeating themselves. So the network gets better the more permanently installed devices it contains. A Thread router is hidden in many speakers and TV boxes today.
What we advise clients
Anyone building or renovating lays cables. Radio is convenient, but a cable does not age and needs no battery. The combination has proved itself: lighting, blinds and heating hard-wired via a bus system, everything movable via Matter.
When switching pays off
You do not replace an existing system that works because of a standard. Matter pays off for new purchases and extensions. For existing installations there are bridges that translate the devices you have into the new world – we check that case by case.
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The idea of a house that thinks along is fifty years old. A short history of home automation – from a Scottish plug socket to a common standard.
KNX explained: the standard that has held for 30 years
KNX is the bus system electrical planners in Switzerland rely on most often. How it works, what it costs and for whom it is the right choice.
Loxone explained: the smart home from a single source
One Miniserver, one manufacturer, one piece of software: Loxone promises home automation without a babel of protocols. What the system can do and where its limits lie.