The first residents have moved into matter residences at the stylish new Vestra at UnCommons mixed-use community in southwest Las Vegas, designed by globally renowned architects EDI International and interior design agency, Jules Wilson Design Studio. Matter Residences are the first of three midrise towers that will ultimately have 352 units in total.
Matter is a smart home interoperability protocol that runs over Wi-Fi, Thread, or Ethernet. That means it can work with both wired and wireless devices, making it an attractive alternative to existing protocols like Zigbee or Z-Wave that are based on older, less stable technologies.
It also works over your local network, avoiding the need to connect your devices to the cloud to talk with each other or to your smart voice assistant. That’s important because it will keep your data secure and out of the hands of companies that might sell it to third parties or use it for other purposes.
At launch, Matter will work with a large number of device categories, including smart lights and bulbs, smart plugs, thermostats and other heating and cooling devices, security sensors, connected locks, and media devices such as smart speakers and TVs. The list of alliance members and participants reads like a who’s who of the tech world, with companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, Philips Hue, Samsung SmartThings, Aqara, and Switchbot all pledging support.
But there are a few caveats. SmartThings hubs will bridge your existing Zigbee or Z-Wave devices into Matter, and the CSA has announced solutions to allow other smart home platforms to do the same (though the exact timeline for that is unclear). Bluetooth-only devices that don’t rely on a bridge, such as Eve’s earlier line of sensor and security products or GE Cync’s Bluetooth mesh bulbs, won’t be upgraded to Matter. matter residences