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0 pointsIzkata3y ago0 comments

> so everyone expects

Hmm..

> Matter started life in 2019 as Project CHIP (Connected Home over IP), a collaboration between some of the biggest players in tech; Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, the Zigbee Alliance, and various other tech brands, which aimed to create a unified smart home standard. [0]

Ahh, that explains it. I bought most of my devices a few years before this existed, and having those companies involved pretty much guarantees people expecting this to succeed over anything else.

Honestly though, Google and Amazon being involved make me less interested in it. It pretty much guarantees requiring a cloud connection.

[0] https://www.the-ambient.com/guides/matter-smart-home-explain...

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vineyardmike3y ago

> Honestly though, Google and Amazon being involved make me less interested in it. It pretty much guarantees requiring a cloud connection.

1. Except the spec says otherwise...

Matter is basically a reworked Zigbee-over-IP with a special "we think you should use Thread" push. The spec (which is public), requires devices to work over LAN, but provides an escape for devices to have extra proprietary functionalities that aren't in spec. It doesn't require LAN-only, but it is "at least LAN".

The spec is based off HomeKit's networking model (IP based + mDNS discovery) with a data model closer to Zigbee's (binary format, device node/trait/tree). Its design-by-committee so you have lots of features, some of which expect a cloud (ability for devices to upload logs) and some which don't (general device control). Almost none should require a specific cloud (eg. OTAs can come from any hub, signed by manufacturer, logs can be uploaded to any hub's cloud).

You should be able to run any hub/voice-assistant/controller you want. Apple HomePods should allow most cloud-free control for a major company's product, while something like HomeAssistant will allow complete OS self-hosted control.

2. Google and Amazon obviously have cloud interfaces, but both also already allow LAN-control of smarthome devices already, and that will accelerate as they push into matter.

This will help them lower cloud hosting costs themselves (which is a major expense, see Alexa layoffs). Amazon seems less committed to Matter, but Google was one of the major matter contributors (along with Apple), and "donated" a bunch of IP to get it working (eg thread). Most companies will probably push for LAN control due to latency/UX impacts, especially since the can still gather out-of-band performance metrics via hubs.

Alexa and Google Assistant are starting to move to on-device NLU and processing, so cloud-phobia or aversion is likely not going to be a major problem in a few years.

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