Setting the Record Straight on Matter Protocol: Growth, Challenges, and a Bright Future
Wael Guibene
Technology and Product Leader: Wireless, Embedded and Cloud Services for Wireless, IoT & Smart Homes
I recently came across an article titled "Why the Matter Protocol Hasn’t Lived Up to Its Promise," which highlights some valid challenges but -in my personal opinion (which is a good reminder that what follows are my personal views on the Matter matter)- overlooks the bigger picture. Let’s dive into why Matter represents progress, not failure, and why we should focus on its potential rather than just its current limitations.
🌱 Matter Is Still Growing
Matter is a young protocol, and expecting it to completely eliminate fragmentation in smart homes overnight is unrealistic. The adoption of any universal standard—be it USB, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth—has always taken time, iterations, and industry alignment. What Matter has already achieved is impressive:
🔗 Thread: The Backbone of Matter
At the heart of Matter's potential is Thread, the mesh networking protocol that transforms how smart devices connect. Unlike older protocols, Thread is designed to enable:
Thread is the foundation that will make Matter thrive. While it’s true that many devices and ecosystems are yet to adopt Matter fully, this isn’t a failure—it's the natural evolution of technology adoption.
🛠️ Challenges Are Part of the Process
Yes, fragmentation persists:
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But these challenges are expected in a protocol's early stages. As more manufacturers adopt Matter and devices receive updates, the gaps will close. History shows that standards only succeed with time, collaboration, and continued innovation.
🌟 The Bigger Picture: A Unified Smart Home Future
Matter is a step forward in creating the unified smart home experience we’ve all been waiting for. It’s not perfect today, but it’s laying the groundwork for:
Let’s not forget the progress Matter has already made. It’s bridging ecosystems, aligning manufacturers, and creating a future where your smart home just works—no matter the brand.
🚀 Call to Action
Rather than focusing on what Matter hasn’t done yet, let’s celebrate the progress and work toward supporting this industry-wide movement. Change takes time, but the path Matter and Thread are carving out will benefit everyone—manufacturers, developers, and users alike.
What are your thoughts? Are we being too quick to judge Matter, or do you see the same potential I do? Let’s discuss! 💬
IoT Ecosystem Solution Design, IoT Ecosystem Strategist. Continuous Student and Researcher of the IoT industry
1mo(1st) Wael Guibene, Elizabeth Parks Technology is not the issue to this market space, we all understand that. Innovations for this space are happening every year, year over year: Pace of Innovations in connect-ability and communications, hardware and software. There is no specific standard or specific technology that can fit best for all potential networking scenarios and use cases that have yet to come to this market space. No singular company can produce all these potentially networking scenarios either. Capturing this "Pace of Innovations" to fit into the consumer's networking home environment is the challenge. Capturing this Pace of Innovations captures the consumer's attention to this market space in it's totality. In my opinion the only way to do this is by producing a platform that facilitates the networking infrastructure inside the consumer's home environment in a seamless manner for the consumer. Hide all the complexities of integration and interoperability's inside the platform. Easier said than done... lol
IoT Ecosystem Solution Design, IoT Ecosystem Strategist. Continuous Student and Researcher of the IoT industry
1moThe analogy of Matter fitting similar to other standards such as WiFi or Bluetooth is not the same event hough Thread is it's backbone. Matter has a similar analogy to DNLA. DNLA deployment was very successful as a standard but really never did any for the market it's market fit as a standard. DNLA wasn't really for the smart home. It was for sharing stuff across ecosystems. Matter is definitely a step in the right direction in thinking the "interoperability" direction is where the industry needs to start at 1st, then the deployment of the "Unified Smart Home" market should happen. Matter is not the answer. The standard still leaves way too many questions to be addressed and answered. It looks to be a decentralized approach to this market space similar to the DNLA was for a sharing market space. Consumers really don't know what the purpose of this is. Who decides what in the ecosystem tyring to be created? The standard? What about the pace of innovation to the market? Does this get limited to the standard? What if the consumers buy stuff for their homes that don't fit the standard because it fits their needs at the time of purchase? Who is responsible for the failures of the networking infrastructure inside the home?......
Market Research and Marketing Communications Expert | Thought Leadership | Networking / Brand Visibility for Tech and IoT Markets - Consumer, Small Business, Multifamily
1moRoger Pena typically contributes to these discussions
I see bridges being a super important device type in Matter. They provide a convenient way of integrating different technologies at the IP level. And they are being adopted by the market.
Technology Executive | Board Chairman | Alliance Leader
1moThanks Wael Guibene, good article. It is important to remember that the problems Matter aims to solve are real and big. Since the #Matter launch just over two years ago, the Connectivity Standards Alliance has released four subsequent iterations of the standard (two a year) adding new device types, new application behavior, enhancements to the onboarding experience, and improved infrastructure support. And we keep at it. Market feedback and end-user experiences are important inputs to help further improve and enhance the protocol. This is a journey and we have more work to do. I think in this journey we are exactly where I expected us to be, and I am excited about where we are going.