Matter 1.3 pushes the standard into your kitchen, laundry room and garage
The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) has rolled out Matter version 1.3, giving smart home brands a new option to extend their technology to the kitchen and other areas of the home. One of the cornerstones of the update is the ability to operate important, or more essential, household appliances. This also applies to ovens and hobs.
The first allows homeowners to check the βstatus of the furnace,β such as whether it is preheating or cooling, and determine how it is operating. You can command the appliance to start frying the ribs placed in it. Hotplates will experience a similar level of control. Users can turn it on or change the temperature remotely.
When it comes to laundry rooms, the CSA adds support for dryers and allows control over various functions, such as changing the drying mode. The machine even sends a notification to let you know when your clothes are dry. If you’re curious about washing machine support, it was added back in Matter 1.2. Version 1.3 extends that support.
Utility management
There’s more to owning a home than just appliances. Managing utilities is another important aspect. To help with this, the CSA has upgraded the standard’s energy reporting capabilities. Connected smart home devices now let you know how much electricity they use, how much they generate and other important data such as the current voltage. The energy characteristics also extend to electric vehicles. Thanks to Matter 1.3, EV drivers can adjust the charging level to their desired range. They can do this by indicating a βset departure timeβ or by manually switching off charging.
In addition, Matter can monitor your home’s sewer system. Your app displays information from installed pipe detectors to let you know if there is a leak somewhere in the house or if the pipes are frozen.
Notable improvements
Everything we’ve discussed so far applies to previously unsupported devices. The rest of the patch consists of new software features and improvements to previous hardware.
According to the CSA, scenes are now supported, allowing homeowners to create special conditions that are activated at the touch of a button. For example, a scene can dim the lights in your living room or instantly change color.
Matter 1.3 also allows users to group multiple commands together so that they are executed one after the other. The CSA states that this will minimize the ‘popcorn effect’, which is a long delay between sending commands to a smart home device and their visible execution. Software improvements in Matter 1.3 include the ability to see notifications from other gadgets on smart TVs, plus several bug fixes.
If you’re looking to upgrade your home, check out Ny Breaking’s round-up of the best smart home devices for 2024. We’ve got speakers, cameras, thermostats and more on the list.