Soon, maybe before the end of 2021, you’ll be able to do something you’ve never done before: instantly, comfortably, and — get this — directly integrate Google products into Apple’s HomeKit ecosystem. Alternatively, you might integrate Google devices into your Amazon Alexa-controlled smart home.
It’ll also work the other way around, connecting previously incompatible devices – such as Amazon’s Ring doorbells, Blink cameras, and so on – to your Google-based ecosystem.
There will be no kludgy workarounds or third-party providers like IFTTT to fill the void. Just you, your smart home accessories, and the smart home network of your choice coexist.
Google intends to deeply integrate the Matter standard into its Android smartphone operating system in the future. The aim would be to reduce the Matter-certified smart home system setup process to a few taps and to provide ways to monitor new devices instantly without the need to download additional software.
“With Android, we’ll probably build the Matter feature into Android Devices, so it’ll actually be an app that some other Android apps can use to actually kind of make it really simple for a user to set a Matter device,” Po explained.
Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? If Google’s vision of the smart home’s future, described in a blog post published Wednesday, comes true, it won’t be.
According to Google, contact between Google-made devices and rival companies’ smart home ecosystems and products would eventually become possible as a result of Google’s implementation of a new networking standard known as Matter (formerly known as Project CHIP).
A look at Matter’s partner list hints at what “other channels” that may include: Apple’s HomeKit, Amazon’s Alexa, Samsung’s SmartThings – as well as devices and services from Signify’s Philips Hue, Comcast, Huawei, and others.
Google Is Already Thinking About The Topic.
Google, in particular, has jumped ahead of the competition on this one. The company has outlined some of the steps it is currently taking – or will soon be taking – to prepare its Google Nest smart home devices and Android mobile operating system for Matter’s primetime debut.
Essentially, the Nest Wifi router, the new Nest Hub, and the flagship Nest Hub Max will use Thread, a technology developed by Google that is part of the Matter standard, to connect to other Thread-enabled devices in a way that is faster and more reliable than Wi-Fi alone.
