Amazon, Apple, and Google Back Matter, a Universal Home Device Certification ⇥ cnet.com

Stephen Shankland, CNet:

Matter is a new name for a smart-home alliance previously called CHIP, short for Connected Home over Internet Protocol. Unveiled in 2019, it employs the internet’s core technology to smooth over the complexities of connecting smart-home devices. The technology allows users to control lighting, heating, home theaters, video doorbells, door locks and alarms through smart speakers.

Getting all of these devices to get along — especially with Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri and Google Assistant competing to be your preferred interface — can be difficult. Matter is designed to unify the network domain, ensuring devices will work with any of those three main voice control systems. It should work even if you use more than one control system.

I recently stumbled across Troy Hunt’s lengthy series on getting smart home devices to work, and this whole market seems catastrophic. Stories like Hunt’s and the many competing standards in this space have dissuaded me from considering any smart home devices. Maybe Matter will make a difference, but maybe there are some things that simply should not be computers.