It seems every year comes and goes and news on home automation is slow. Not that there isn’t talk, there is always talk, just little in the way of action.
With Matter finally being made official at the start of October it seems we might finally see the gap between different standards bridged going forward. Basically Matter is an open standard which all the big players are getting involved in meaning more devices will work across different platforms.
In our region we are a long way behind our USA friends with many devices being unavailable here or not even made for the market, think smart light switches for example, there are a few budget options for the US market but nothing suitable for A/NZ regions.
I have a number of smart globes and LED strips setup in my home in lamps which given ambient lighting at night but I haven’t explored any further into smart locks, built in switches etc due to the huge costs involved. Hopefully now that the Matter standard is taking off we will eventually see more devices available at better price points that work natively with our chosen home automation platforms.
It has been great to see a rethink from both Google and Apple with this years software updates with a complete redesign of their respective Home apps, hopefully this is a sign of the year ahead. Hopefully 2023 will be the year of Matter and of more choice and more affordability in the home automation scene.
Do you have a home automation setup? Take it over to the forums and tell us all about it or leave a comment below.