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Two Years Later, the Promise Is Finally Showing Up in Daily Use
When Matter launched, the pitch was simple: buy any smart home gadget, from any brand, and it just works with whatever hub you already have. No more checking whether your new smart plug talks to Alexa but not Google Home. No more app number fourteen on your phone.
For a while, that promise was mostly marketing. I stayed skeptical on purpose — I've written before about how the boring, well-integrated tool usually beats the flashy new one, and Matter launched flashy. Lots of press, thin follow-through. Devices shipped with "Matter compatible" stickers that meant almost nothing in practice.
That's changed more than I expected. Not completely. But enough that if you're building out a smart home in 2026, ignoring Matter is probably the mistake, not embracing it.
What Actually Got Better
The biggest shift isn't a single feature. It's that the annoying stuff quietly stopped being annoying.
- Setup that used to take three apps and a support forum now mostly happens in one
- Devices from different brands show up in the same room groupings without manual workarounds
- Losing your hub (router reset, dead battery, whatever) doesn't always mean re-pairing everything from scratch anymore
That last one used to be the thing that made me dread touching my smart home setup at all. A power outage meant an evening of re-adding a dozen devices one at a time. It's not perfect now, but it's noticeably less painful, and that alone changes whether normal people will bother.
Where It Still Falls Short
I don't want to oversell this. Matter has real gaps, and pretending otherwise would be the same fluff I'm usually complaining about.
Thread-based devices — the low-power mesh networking half of the Matter story — still depend on having a solid "border router" in the house, which in practice means a smart speaker or hub that supports it sitting somewhere central. If that device is tucked in a closet or turned off, your Thread devices get flaky, and figuring out why is not something a non-technical person will enjoy troubleshooting.
Camera and video doorbell support is also the weak link. Matter handles switches, plugs, sensors, and locks reasonably well. Video is still mostly locked into individual ecosystems, and I don't expect that to change fast — there's more money in keeping you inside one company's app for anything with a lens.
And older devices you already own almost never get Matter support retroactively, even when the manufacturer promised it. If a product page says "Matter support coming via update," treat that as a maybe, not a commitment.
A Realistic Way to Test the Waters
Photo by Anete Lusina on Pexels
You don't need to replace your whole setup to find out if this is worth caring about. Say you've got a mix of smart plugs, a couple of bulbs, and one video doorbell you're happy with.
Leave the doorbell alone — it's the piece least likely to benefit right now. Instead, pick one cheap Matter-certified plug or sensor, pair it through whichever hub you already use most (phone-based Google Home, Alexa app, Apple Home, doesn't matter which), and see how it behaves for a week. Does it show up reliably? Does automation involving it actually fire when it should?
If yes, that's your signal the standard has matured enough on your specific hardware to build on. If it's flaky, hold off — you're not obligated to be an early adopter for a standard that's still filling in gaps.
The Honest Opinion Most Smart Home Advice Skips
Most "is Matter worth it" posts either declare it fully solved or write it off as vaporware. Neither is true, and I think the real answer is more useful: Matter is worth it for the categories it's strong in — plugs, switches, sensors, basic lighting, locks — and not yet worth chasing for cameras or anything with a screen.
Buying a device specifically because it's Matter-certified only matters if the category is one where Matter is actually doing the heavy lifting. A Matter-certified smart plug is a safe bet. A "Matter-enabled" camera is mostly a marketing checkbox for now.
FAQ
Do I need to throw out my existing smart home devices to use Matter?
No. Matter is designed to sit alongside your existing setup, not replace it. Devices that aren't Matter-certified keep working through their original app; you're just adding a layer that helps newer devices play nicer across ecosystems.
Does Matter mean I can finally delete some of my smart home apps?
Partially. You can control more devices from fewer apps than before, especially for the well-supported categories like plugs and sensors. But manufacturer apps for advanced settings, firmware updates, or camera features usually still stick around.
Is it worth buying a Thread border router just to get better Matter support?
If you're already invested in several Matter or Thread devices and reliability has been spotty, yes, it's a reasonable small investment. If you've only got one or two smart devices total, it's probably overkill — a phone-based hub setup will do fine for now.
Where This Leaves Your Next Purchase
If you're shopping for smart home gear right now, Matter certification is a genuinely useful filter — for the right categories. Let it guide your plug, sensor, and lock purchases. Don't let it be the deciding factor for a camera or anything video-based, because that part of the ecosystem hasn't caught up yet, and probably won't for a while. The standard finally did some of what it promised. It just didn't do all of it, and knowing which parts is what saves you from buying into the wrong hype at the wrong time.
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