I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s intentionally being downplayed and companies are trying to quietly kill it… a lot of the smart home ecosystem vendors rely heavily on vendor lock-in.
It’s only a matter of time before it happens now that the idea has been floated. Some will adopt eventually. Either this protocol or another.
Apple was recently forced to make their power connector ‘standard’ USB. Is it possible the Smart Home tech companies will be forced to work to a given standard. I hope they work it out themselves before the all-knowing government gets involved🫤
That was because the EU forced them to switch to USB-C there, and it was just economical for them to standardize it everywhere else after that.
So yes, it is possible for a major player like the EU to require a company adopt a certain standard (or quit doing business there), and if they do so, then it is likely those companies will also make it available in the US as well.
It is unlikely that the US will make this requirement, but it is possible a state like California might try to force it on companies, at which point companies would then have to decide whether to implement it for everywhere or just ban their products from that state. Things like that happen sometimes.
While possible, it is unlikely it will come to that. More likely, it will come down to something along the lines of economic pressure. People and a group of companies will start to adopt a certain standard, and then others will feel like they will have to support it or they will lose a lot more market share than if they stay isolated.
Personally, regardless of how Matter fairs in the near term, I think Home Assistant is going to be the ultimate REAL, true open-source platform everyone will be fighting to be compatible with. It’s not quite yet to the level of super simplicity that will be needed for global adoption, but it is getting there and will almost definitely continue to gain traction and market share as improved iterations come, especially since it supports almost everything, including Matter, but doesn’t have a pay-to-play requirement like most of the others. But again, that is still many years and iteration improvements away from general public use.
Mixed feelings about governments regulating at a level where they tell you what power cord you can use. Apple would have phased it in already, they had patents and were going to need to do it in this gen or the next to support the faster transport speeds necessary for things like ProRes.
Also, think of the unparalleled level of waste of the lightning cables that are now useless.
People forget sometimes that lightning cables were so much faster and better than what was out there at the time, and continued to be for a long time.
Then you have Apple developing/evolving thunderbolt which is wayyy faster than regular usb c using the same cables. Anyways, IMO they would have needed to incorporate usb c/thunderbolt at some point anyways. You already see the application with using a newer iPhone 15 pro/pro max connected and recording to external devices now.
I just think that a government controlling innovation and production at that level sets a dangerous precedent for future rules to be enforced that could stifle innovation or favor particular businesses.
I agree with everything you just said. 
I was simply answering the question they asked about whether it was possible they could be forced into it and what that would look like.
But my personal belief of how it SHOULD go, matches your thoughts above. The market and technological improvement will usually adequately eventually force companies’ hands if it’s important.
On the other hand, I’m also fairly opposed to companies making everything proprietary, just so they can gouge users and third parties with their monopoly stranglehold. I wish consumers would retaliate against that by voting with their wallets, but apparently a lot of people don’t mind. 
It’s always about $$$.
Lightning and Thunderbolt are proprietary. USB is an open IEEE industry standard.
Home Assistant is open and free. Matter is an open-source standard, but proprietary by certification ($$$).
Yes, thunderbolt is proprietary and well worth it for the extra compatible devices cost. Similar to lightning when it came out, it’s just so much faster/better than the regular usb standard. To the point it has become the gold standard in most media applications (filming to drive, working of external drive with laptop, etc)… hats off to Apple for thunderbolt, the fact that they did it this time using standard usb c cords and made them cross compatible with USB is wonderful.
A lot of times it is about the $$$$… but to be fair, it’s the $$$$ that most often pays for and accelerated innovation.
Re: Home Assistant vs Matter… that comparison doesn’t quite hold up. I’m a fan of HA, it’s the backbone to my custom smart home - but - it’s not a standard. It’s an extensible hub more than anything else. The string that ties it all together.
Matter is needed, there will be big smart home manufacturers dragging their feet, but if not matter, it will end up being something else. People are already figuring out how to tie all the systems together. Technically adept people have been doing it for a long time already.
I think that you’ll see faster awareness and adoption once some of the more useful, valuable protocols/standards are completed - I.e.: video/cameras.
It actually looked like Wyze was intentionally putting out higher level cameras that would have the resources to support matter in the future, so I’d be curious to hear someone from Wyze weigh in on what’s going on.
They spoke saying that they looked at all available options, but knew they wouldn’t be able to provide support to the cameras existing at/before that time, because the cameras simply didn’t have enough resources to run both the internal firmware and the Matter “sidecar”. Then, almost right after they said that, they started releasing more powerful, higher tier cameras (Wyze Cam v3 Pro, and a handful of others now) that theoretically do have the onboard resources to support both Wyze’s firmware and matter.
Wyze listed the biggest issue being waiting on the camera standard to actually be finalized. I haven’t checked in the last few months, but last I did, it was still a ways out.
Standard clarification here…
USB C, like USB A and B before it, is a physical connector type. Not all USB C cables are alike. Some support power only. Some support slow data protocols only. Some are certified for high speed data protocols. They are not necessarily interchangeable depending on what you want to use them for.
USB 3.x and other numbered USB versions are data protocols Thunderbolt is a data protocol. The latest Thunderbolt is faster than the latest USB as I recall. USB 4 was generally aligned with Thunderbolt 3. Thunderbolt 4 has somewhat more capability.
I will take corrections on the latest data protocol capabilities as I haven’t double checked recently the comparison details.
I asked Wyze about Matter in their latest AMA:
Another one:
Thought some of you following this wishlist would like an update, even if it’s not exactly what we hoped to hear.
I thought I would chime in to mention that I have had almost exclusively Wyze products in my home for many years (including 24+ color bulbs). I’m currently replacing them all with competitor’s products due to Wyze’s continuous lack of compatibility.
HomeKit, matter, etc. it’s always the same story where they say they’re working on it but then years later it still doesn’t exist. Even off-brand smart devices support these standards now.
Wyze could do it if they really wanted to. They won’t because they’re not aware of how much business they are losing.
Wyze used to be awesome because it was an alternative to Hue that actually performed better. But the reality is Philips has been the first to add support to legacy devices every time a new standard has been released. The original Wyze value proposition has not held true over time.
I think they know exactly how much business they are losing, and yet they still think they can generate that lost business with their subscription model across all their mediocre products.
It’s completely misguided and will eventually be the end of them, but when you’re so full of yourself and so brainwashed into thinking you’ll be the destination for all home automation that you’re blind to reality, that’s what happens.
I understand your frustration. Wyze is a pretty small company that really isn’t very old. They are struggling to stay somewhat profitable in these rocky economic times.
They just can’t be on the bleeding edge and make a profit. Matter may eventually come but it could be several years (especially for CAMERAS).
Just a note: Philips is 130+ years old. They employ 75,000 people and are a 30 BILLION dollar company.
Bob
Philips Hue products were spun off from Philips Netherlands in 2016 and have since then been developed by Signify N.V.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signify_N.V.
I also think it’s a cop-out to use cameras to justify the lack of compatibility of the rest of their products. Wyze makes a LOT more than just cameras these days.
It’s just gotten quite old that every time I want to make a change to my smarthome, my Wyze products are the gating factor that prevents me from doing it.
Wyze could sell me a $40 hub that allows for HomeKit and matter support and I would happily hand over my money in an instant.
Thought some people would like an update on Matter. Version 1.3 dropped today.
They talk about Cameras in this section: Push messages with Matter Casting
A feature that will become even more important with cameras. [Cameras] are currently being developed as a Matter product category, but have not made it into the current release. “Once cameras or video doorbells are there, you can find out who rang at your front door, for example,” explains Chris LaPré. “You could even have two-way communication directly on the TV,” he continues.
At least the camera protocol is being actively worked on. Sounds like there is some tension from Apple who wants to use homekit for secure video, but it’s proprietary so everyone else says it can’t be allowed.
There is actually an agreement among manufacturers in the Matter community that applications for which there is a solution in the standard should not be solved in a proprietary way. So things remain tense.
Anyway, at least there is now confirmation that the Matter consortium IS actually working on the camera protocols FINALLY. They’re going super slow, but at least they started. Once that launches, then Wyze will consider where to go from there.
My personal guess is that they will launch Matter on a new camera line. I know some of the older cameras definitely won’t be capable because they won’t have the resources or minimum specs to support it, and I’m guessing it’s just easier to make a new camera with it running from the start like almost all the other companies have been doing with Matter. Though I’m guessing half the reason most of them do that is so they can make more new sales. But At least we might see cameras supporting it soon! I’m guessing they’ll finish the first base layer within the next year, then maybe add more stuff later like they’ve been doing with other things like lights.
Thanks for sharing an update on this, even if it’s not specific to Wyze. Although I have only a few Matter-capable products at the moment, I really like the local control that it offers and would like to see more of that. There’s an appreciable and significant response difference when I tell a voice assistant to act on my Matter-enabled bulbs versus my Wyze bulbs.
Will Wyze support MATTER? Ever?
The realistic answer to that question is – “NEVER!”
They diligently dragged their feet for nearly a decade regarding HomeKit support, no doubt MATTER will hold about an equal level of priority to WYZE … ie, zero.
They actually tried to get homekit approval and were denied.
I don’t know all the details, but as I recall one of the devs who was working with said something about how their second stream wasn’t high enough resolution. He said they tried to appeal the decision and got denied. Something along those lines. People have brought it up since then, because a lot of their newer cams should be able to qualify now, Especially all of the 2K cams I think. And now it makes a lot more sense to just wait until matter is ready since matter support will automatically be homekit support As well as lots of others.
They actually discussed matter in some recent amas. The matter camera libraries should finally launch this fall. Matter has been dragging their feet on releasing the camera libraries, but they’re supposed to do them by the end of fall, so I’m excited to see what matter finally does with cameras! It sure took them long enough. Too much in fighting between the big three to agree on what to do for so long.
No offense, but I won’t be holding my breath on this… Maybe they were denied, allegedly, but considering the years of the dragging their feet and basically outright lying when it came to HomeKit support, I won’t be handing any of my money over to WYZE … there’s no excuse not to have MATTER support for their other equipment, like lights, for example.
Claiming they are ‘waiting for camera support’ has the same stench as their endless previous excuses …
Totally fair. The Matter Camera libraries will be released sometime this fall, and then I would guess they will have to decide how to move forward, and their roadmap is usually planned 6-12 months in advance, so there’s a good chance nothing would be open toward these changes for another year. Holding your breath for 1+years would not be good for your health. 
How so? I’m not aware of any lying.
As for dragging their feet, they’ve mostly been transparent that they weren’t likely to do it. I think that’s a little different. At least they let people know.
Additionally, it should be mentioned that regardless of Matter, they are currently working to add RTSP support to most of their cameras.
That will make it possible to get all the cameras into HomeKit too, even if they don’t add direct Homekit or Matter support. I’m really looking forward to testing RTSP when it releases to Beta.
You’d be surprised. There are a lot of companies that have backed out of matter because it’s not true open source. Companies are required to pay an annual membership fee, plus a product certification fee per device, plus the per product certificationa nd testing fees, plus annual product listing fees, product attestation authority (PAA)/ Digital certification and maintenance fee, recertification fees, and variable other alliance fees. It’s a higher barrier to entry than you would think. Keep in mind that all these annual fees need to continue to be paid forever. So for every product that doesn’t have a subscription, you immediately have an ongoing liability losing you money every year even if you no longer produce or sell the product. You will lose money on it indefinitely. Things can get tricky, particularly for companies that like to innovate with new models and upgrades. Matter in its current form rewards stifling innovation and progress away from newer upgraded hardware options, etc. There are also some potential complications with adopting Matter. In some instances, Matter is purposely “Basic” with lack of feature parity. it won’t support all of the unique, advanced features some manufacturers want to offer and be known for. It has also been a nightmare with multi-admin inconsistencies. There are a lot of technical and logistical hurdles for companies to overcome involving complexity and development time with little pay off, especially recently as there has been a pretty poor consumer experience so far.
I like and support matter, and have several matter devices, but it’s not something I would recommend to the majority of my family and friends. It does not work the way people think, and is not always straightforward. They’ve been making good strides lately, but there are lots of companies that have been intentionally avoiding it, or purposely limiting which devices they’ll allow to support it because of ongoing sunk cost liability that will haunt them forever in the future since it’s not actually true open source. There are a lot of legit concerns.
Regardless, here are their most recent responses to questions about Matter:
My hope is that they will finally review the Matter Camera libraries once they launch (they’ve long been waiting for this, and it should finally happen this fall!), then make a plan for how to move forward and what else to do after that, including a legacy bridge that will allow access to many of their other existing products. That’s the feel I get from employees when I talk to them about it.
I would not be surprised if they don’t add ALL past products though. They’d just be losing a ton of money for no reason to add support for devices they no longer produce or sell and don’t have subscriptions for. They already operate on extremely low profit margins, and adding back support for discontinued devices would be financially irresponsible in a lot of ways. I expect to see Matter for some of the most popular devices that are currently in production, and many devices that can potentially have a subscription (cameras) and won’t be an ongoing liability/loss. Though I could see them add a bunch of legacy devices under a single legacy bridge matter license. That would offset the sunk cost liability tremendously. Then they wouldn’t have to pay for every device individually. They could add a lot of past devices to matter that way. I would hope for and support that. I will definitely be pushing them to sell a legacy bridge to add lots of their past products to be matter accessible.