Apple continues to expand the compatibility of its home automation platform.
Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung and the Zigbee Alliance collaborated to create a new, unified standard for home automation so that all devices in the industry offer compatibility with technology products from every manufacturer.
This new standard based on Zigbee protocols is called Question and will soon replace Apple’s HomeKit home automation platform. Now from Amazon they have announced that all their devices will be compatible with this home automation standard.
This is excellent news, because it implies that absolutely all Amazon home automation accessories will be compatible with the Casa app available on Apple devices.
Amazon will update its Echo devices to offer compatibility with Matter
From The Verge, we are informed that Amazon has announced that it will be updating a total of 17 different models of echo devices in order to integrate compatibility with matter.
The initiative will start from December 2022 and, initially, it will only be available on Android. But Amazon Matter support will soon expand to Apple iOS devices, especially in the initial 2023 period.
This delay is due, among other things, to Apple’s requirements on its devices. Amazon engineers will need to employ the new APIs of the signature of the bitten apple logo to implement support with Matter and ensure its proper functioning.
There are a large number of Amazon devices related to home automation, for this reason and for the complexity of the project, the transition will be a little slower than normal.
Amazon Echo devices will receive Matter compatibility
Chris DeCenzo, Senior Director of Engineering at Amazon, shared the company’s plan as follows:
“We offer support with Matter on over 100 million devices across 30 Echo and Eero models. This is an effort unprecedented in scale and complexity.”
Here is the list of Amazon devices that will be compatible with Matter:
- Echo Dot (3rd Gen)
- Echo (4th generation)
- Echo Dot (5th Gen)
- Echo Studio
- echo show 5
- echo show 8
- Echo Show 10
- Echo (v3)
- Echo input
- Echo Flex
- Echo Plus (v2)
- Additional Echo and Eero devices will receive the update starting in 2023.
Bringing protocols from Amazon devices – and many other manufacturers such as Google and Apple – into the new Matter standard won’t be an easy task. The process will take time, but it will be worth it in the long run. so that all users can enjoy more unified and universal home automation accessory control.
We are sure that users of iPhone, iPad, Mac and other devices like Apple Watch or Apple TV where Home app is available will love controlling Amazon devices from Home. We can’t wait to try it!
