en_US
en_US zh_TW
en_US
en_US zh_TW
news

Home Assistant officially receives Matter certification: a new chapter in open source smart home

, Modified:
Neil
Neil

In the world of smart homes, compatibility between devices has always been a major challenge for users and developers. Recently, the open source smart home platform Home Assistant officially passed the Matter certification issued by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), becoming the first open source project to obtain this certification. This breakthrough not only enhances Home Assistant’s position in the smart home field, but also brings new possibilities for the future development of the smart home ecosystem.

Matter: Vision and reality of unified smart home standards

Matter was created to solve the interoperability problem between smart home devices, allowing products from different brands to work together on the same platform. However, there is still a gap between ideal and reality. ​Since the release of the Matter 1.0 standard in October 2022, although the supported product types have expanded to hundreds, including lamps, sockets, fans, locks, refrigerators, washing machines, etc., in practical applications, Matter's ease of use and effectiveness still face challenges.

For example, while Matter devices can theoretically be connected and controlled through any Matter controller (such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa app), in practice, compatibility issues between different platforms still occur from time to time. ​The existence of these problems means that users still face certain difficulties and limitations when building smart home systems and purchasing equipment.​

Home Assistant's breakthrough from support to certification

As an open source smart home system, Home Assistant already supported the Matter standard in its beta version as early as 2023. 2024/01/11 Live broadcast explains the importance of Matter to cross-brand collaboration in smart home systems. However, formally obtaining CSA's Matter certification marks a new milestone in standards compliance and reliability. Matter certification is not only a recognition of Home Assistant's technical strength, but also sets an example for other open source projects.

It is worth noting that Home Assistant's Matter support is mainly implemented through an add-on called "Open Home Foundation Matter Server". ​This component is separated from Home Assistant as an independent software component. The advantage of this architectural design is that there is no need to re-authenticate each time Home Assistant is updated, thereby improving the efficiency of development and maintenance.

Certification brings win-win situation for users and developers

Works with Home Assistant 合作夥伴
Works with Home Assistant partners. Image credit: Home Assistant

The certification won't bring any immediate changes to existing Home Assistant users. However, in the long run, this will enhance users' trust in the Home Assistant platform and may attract more developers and brands to join the Home Assistant ecosystem. Currently, several Matter devices have passed the "Works With Home Assistant" program certification (eg Aqara U200 smart door lock).

In addition, this certification also provides a reference example for other open source projects, proving that open source projects can also achieve industry-leading levels in standards compatibility and reliability. This will encourage more open source projects to pursue high-standard certification, thereby promoting the progress of the entire smart home industry.

Future challenges and opportunities for Matter

Although the launch of Matter aims to unify smart home standards, it still faces many challenges in its actual promotion and popularization. For example, compatibility issues between different platforms, user acceptance of new standards, and support from device manufacturers will all affect Matter's development prospects.​

However, as more and more devices begin to support Matter, it is expected that more smart home products will be compatible with each other in the future, providing users with greater flexibility and choice. At the same time, the active participation of open source platforms such as Home Assistant will help promote the popularization and application of Matter, and ultimately achieve seamless interconnection of smart home devices.​

Having said that, Home Assistant's Matter certification marks the important position of open source smart home platforms in the industry and sets an example for the development of other open source projects. ​With the promotion of the Matter standard and the support of more devices, the smart home ecosystem will become more interoperable and compatible, and the majority of users will ultimately benefit. We look forward to more open source projects and companies joining the Matter ecosystem in the future to jointly promote the prosperity and development of the smart home industry.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

you might like
recent discussions
  • Jerry 2025/04/14Thank you very much Neil for your selfless sharing. The websites you provided are of great help to me. I will save it first and digest it slowly^^ I also look forward to Neil's industry news and teaching articles in the futureHome Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Neil 2025/04/13Hi Jerry, I usually get information about HA from these places: Website: – Home Assistant official Release notes – Automata – Home Automation Community – Weijia Home Intelligence FB Group: – Taiwan Home Assistant enthusiasts exchange – Home Assistant YouTube channel: – Smart Home Solver – Everything Smart Home – Home Assistant Programming language: Strictly speaking, YAML is not really a programming language (let me make this clear in case some people mind 🤣), but if we include these data formats or style languages that “look like” programming languages, and sort them by depth of use in HA (the deeper the bottom, the deeper the bottom): – YAML (data format): a language for configuration files used in many places in the HA environment. – CSS (style language): used to adjust the interface style (font size, color, image, position, etc.). – JSON (data format): If you use Node-RED, you will probably come across it. – Jinja2 (Python template syntax): You may encounter it when you explore automation or Dashboard in depth. ※ But in fact, even if HA does not know the above, it can still make a smart home complete. You don’t have to put so much pressure on yourself, but if you are interested, it is also good to know more. It is actually difficult to generalize about the support of devices. Now, even if the home appliances themselves do not support it, there are still many different ways to connect traditional home appliances to HA. In addition, cases like Haier do require in-depth research. What I usually do is to crawl a lot of information on the Internet, and usually find attempts made by others. It just so happens that when I was looking up other information recently, I saw someone sharing how Haier water heaters were connected to HA. But it is indeed like what you said, if you get involved for a while, you will understand these details more and more. 🤣Home Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Jerry 2025/04/10Hello Neil: After observing for 1 or 2 days, everything seems to be normal. Maybe it’s because the system was not stable during the initial setup period!? The more I play, the deeper I feel. I also find that I still have many shortcomings. I wonder if Neil can share and teach everyone how to fish? For example, recommend good websites, forums, FB groups, youtube videos, or give some guidance. In addition to the YAML language, would it be helpful to know some CSS syntax? Do I need to know other languages? I can even start a new teaching direction. When I see non-big-name products that claim to support APP (such as products from mainland China), I can teach everyone how to identify whether they can be connected to HA and how to ask customer service? Where can I see supported articles or platforms? This kind of experience sharing, I think, will be very helpful to everyone. I am currently looking to buy a heat pump water heater from Haier. Haier is a big manufacturer in the world and has its own APP. I have also found Haier's kit from HACS, but it does not seem to support heat pump water heaters. Does that mean it cannot be connected to HA? Or is there any channel to check it? There are also many flat panel lights and fan function lamps on the other side of the strait, which also claim to support APP connection, but they are all small manufacturers and it is difficult to tell whether they can be connected to HA. These are the problems I am facing now. If the home appliances I buy are different from what Neil shared, I don’t know where to start. Maybe I'm still too inexperienced. If I play for a few more months, maybe the above problems won't be a problem anymore, haha^^Home Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Neil 2025/04/09Hi Jerry, I tested it myself and it was fine, but please note that because it is controlled through the cloud, there is an extra layer of brand mediation, so it is not suitable for fast switching. I tested it myself and it took about 1 second to complete the synchronization after clicking. Remember to put the entity in entities, otherwise the status display may have problemsHome Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Jerry 2025/04/07Thanks Neil for clarifying this. I tested it later and found that when using the "button panel" to control the switch of the Electrolux air conditioner (the same model as Neil), the device will respond to turning on or off in about 1 second, but the "status icon" for turning on is much slower, and it takes about 30 seconds. The "status icon" for turning off is normal, and the "status icons" of other negative ion switches and the "status icons" of the monitoring light switch are also normal, which made me think there was a problem with the synchronization. I'll test it again, maybe it's caused by the wrong setting.Home Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Neil 2025/04/07Hi Jerry, 1. This method is through cloud integration, which is actually using HA to call Xiaomi/Electrolux to control the device. 2. It is not normal. If this happens, you may need to check whether the entity you display on the floor plan can truly represent the status of the device. If not, you may need to try other entities of the same device.Home Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Jerry 2025/04/07The problem is solved. Thanks again to Neil for his help^^ I have two more questions about concepts. Neil, do I have any misunderstandings? 1. I connected Xiaomi and Electrolux devices to HA through HACS. Is it still connected through WiFi? Before connecting, you need to obtain API key and Access Token from the official. This means that the communication between HA and the device still needs to go through the official. It’s just that the official APP can be replaced and all integrated into the HA APP for control? 2. After testing, when controlling the device through physical operation or the original official APP, the HA app cannot know the status of the device synchronously, but it can know the opposite. Is this normal? For example, the Xiaomi electric fan at home was turned on by someone physically before going out, but when the person is outside, he cannot know through the HA app that the device was forgotten to be turned off. He has to connect to the Xiaomi app to know!?Home Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Jerry 2025/04/07Xiaomi Home can be used in Singapore by selecting the countryHome Assistant must-install HACS plug-in installation steps detailed explanation – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 17
  • Ghost 2025/04/07Xiaomi Home currently does not support Taiwan. For now, you can only use Xiaomi Miot Auto. As for Xiaomi Cloud Map Extractor, I currently have a 2FA problem. There seems to be no simple solution. I haven’t tried it successfully yet.Home Assistant must-install HACS plug-in installation steps detailed explanation – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 17
  • Neil 2025/04/07Jerry, it seems that the click action cannot penetrate the part where the picture changes because of the overlapping pictures. Try adding pointer-events: none to the style.Home Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
you might like

© Copyright - SpaceN (https://neiltw.com/en)