Belkin
According to The Verge, Belkin is putting the brakes on supporting early Matter smart home standards. Belkin’s Wemo smart home branded devices may eventually support Matter, but Belkin has “regressed, reorganized, and rethought” its product strategy before supporting Matter in one of its products. intend to do something. This is the opposite for Belkin, who announced at CES 2022 that he plans to support Matter with some of the new accessories when the standard is ready.
Some Wemo devices already support Thread. Thread is the underlying network protocol used by Matter to allow devices in your home to communicate without flooding your Wi-Fi router. But at least for now, these devices remain tied to Apple’s HomeKit ecosystem.
The often-delayed Matter standard has finally been released in the fall of 2022. It promises to break down the walls between smart home territories, take the guesswork out of buying accessories, and let you control your devices without installing device-specific apps. Matter devices should work whether you use HomeKit, Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, or a combination of all three. A Matter-compatible device retains a basic level of functionality even if the company that made the accessory went out of business or was acquired and shut down.
Of course, it really depends on the companies that decide to support Matter. Without universal buy-in, it creates chaos instead of bringing order, and risks becoming yet another competing standard.
Just because one brand doesn’t exist doesn’t mean the Matter initiative is doomed. Quite a few companies are announcing or launching new Matter devices, and others are updating their existing devices to support Matter. Over 190 devices are Matter certified as of November 2022, and that list should grow as future versions of the Matter standard add support for more types of smart home devices. . And this standard is supported by his three companies: Apple, Google and Amazon. These three companies could have most easily decided to sink Matter by not supporting it.
Belkin has said Wemo devices will support Matter if the company can “find a way to differentiate,” suggesting that Belkin may eventually decide to join the standard. Until then, don’t include Wemo products in your plans for a Matter-enabled smart home overhaul.
