Building with Matter: Navigating the Matter Specification Through 1.6

Since Matter 1.0 was released in 2022, the Connectivity Standards Alliance has developed the standard from a common interoperability foundation into a broader framework for smart home products, energy systems, commissioning, security, and multi-ecosystem administration.

Matter 1.2 and 1.3 broadened device support and introduced more advanced appliance, energy, and water-management functions. Matter 1.4 strengthened home network infrastructure, energy coordination, and device administration. The 1.4.1 and 1.4.2 releases then improved setup, security, scalability, and development tooling. Matter 1.5 marked another major functional expansion, adding native cameras, a unified closures framework, soil sensors, and further energy-management functions.

Matter 1.5.1 refined camera media delivery and related doorbell, chime, and intercom behavior. Matter 1.6 shifts the emphasis to commissioning, shared administration, context-aware control, device-status reporting, and security infrastructure.

For device manufacturers, this evolution creates practical decisions involving hardware architecture, setup methods, application behavior, ecosystem compatibility, testing, certification, and long-term maintenance. This guide traces the Matter specification from version 1.0 through 1.6 and examines what its evolution means for interoperable connected-product development.

Matter 1.6 – More Intuitive Setup, Multi-Ecosystem Management, and Context-Aware Control

June 17, 2026

Matter 1.6 focuses on how devices are commissioned, administered across ecosystems, and controlled in response to user preferences and operating conditions. It gives manufacturers and platform developers new options for setup, shared device access, contextual behavior, status reporting, and scalable certificate management [1].

Bidirectional NFC Commissioning

Matter 1.6 allows the complete commissioning exchange to occur through Near Field Communication. Matter 1.4.1 had already allowed setup information to be stored in an NFC tag, but Bluetooth Low Energy still carried the commissioning exchange.

Compatible products can now complete that exchange through bidirectional NFC communication, including in certain cases before they are fully powered. The option is useful for in-wall switches, ceiling fixtures, light bulbs, and other products that become difficult to reach after installation. It can also support deployment processes in which multiple devices are provisioned before being placed in their final locations.

NFC therefore becomes a complete commissioning path, rather than only a way to retrieve the onboarding payload.

Joint Fabric for Multi-Ecosystem Administration

Matter 1.6 expands Multi-Admin through Joint Fabric. Earlier approaches generally gave separate ecosystem fabrics access to the same device. Joint Fabric allows multiple user-authorized controllers to participate in and co-administer a shared Matter fabric.

Devices added to the Joint Fabric become available to participating controllers through a central datastore. Administrators can be added or removed without recommissioning every device. The Joint Fabric also consumes only one fabric entry on each device, leaving capacity for conventional ecosystem fabrics when needed.

This model can serve multi-platform households, professionally managed properties, and new-construction projects where control must pass among installers, property managers, service providers, and occupants. Participating ecosystems gain a common administrative structure for sharing and transferring access.

Thermostat Suggestions

Matter 1.6 allows a smart home system to suggest that the thermostat use one of its supported presets, such as Home, Away, or Vacation, for a limited period. The thermostat evaluates the suggestion against user preferences, current environmental conditions, and recent interactions before deciding whether to follow it.

A thermostat can therefore avoid overriding a utility demand-response event, an energy-saving preference, humidity or air-quality priorities, or a temperature change the user has just made manually. When it declines a suggestion, the device can return a standardized explanation.

Thermostat Suggestions let the device consider context before acting on requests from connected smart home systems, helping preserve user preferences.

Device Capabilities and Operating Limits

Devices can report their supported functions and operating limits in a standardized format. Controllers can use this information to represent and operate devices more accurately.

For product developers, this provides a consistent way to expose operating boundaries across Matter ecosystems.

Improved Security Sensor and Alarm Status

Security sensors can provide interoperable event histories alongside their current state. Applications can show when an event occurred and place the present reading in context.

Smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms can also report when they have been removed from their installed position. An alarm may remain connected and responsive even though it is no longer mounted where it can perform its intended safety function. Reporting that condition gives users and ecosystems a clearer indication of operational readiness.

Partitioned Certificate Revocation Lists

Matter 1.6 builds on the certificate-revocation support introduced in Matter 1.4.2. Revocation data can be divided into smaller partitions that are updated and managed independently.

Partitioning reduces the need for ecosystems to retrieve and process one continuously expanding global list. The approach makes certificate-revocation infrastructure easier to scale as the number of Matter-certified products grows.

Matter 1.6 gives manufacturers additional architectural options, but implementation will vary among devices, commissioners, and ecosystem platforms. Product teams still need to evaluate target-platform support, hardware requirements, fallback behavior, and adoption roadmaps before selecting features for a product.

Matter 1.5.1 – Improving Camera Performance and Device Flexibility

March 31, 2026

Matter 1.5.1 is an incremental release centered on the camera framework established in Matter 1.5. It improves media delivery, camera configuration, and the representation of related products such as video doorbells, chimes, and intercoms [2].

More Efficient Camera Streaming

A camera can provide several optimized video and audio streams within a structured session. One stream might deliver high-resolution video for recording, while others serve mobile viewing, video analysis, AI processing, or additional lenses.

Sharing a structured session reduces the need to establish an independent connection for every viewer or service. This can lower bandwidth overhead and simplify simultaneous access to the same camera.

Expanded Media Format Support

Camera snapshots can use the High Efficiency Image Container format, commonly known as HEIC, to reduce file size and storage demand while preserving image detail.

Recorded video can be uploaded through HLS and DASH using the CMAF Interface-2 profile. These formats align Matter cameras with media-delivery and cloud-storage workflows already used by many video platforms.

Improved Camera Operation

Revisions to pan-tilt-zoom behavior accommodate installations where the camera’s home position sits near the edge of its rotation range.

Matter 1.5.1 also strengthens recording-configuration validation. Cameras and controllers can identify unsupported combinations before they produce inconsistent or invalid recording behavior.

Doorbell, Chime, and Intercom Refinements

Video doorbells receive corrections intended to improve interoperability. Controllers can request a specific sound from compatible chimes instead of always triggering the default, allowing different doorbells, events, or automations to produce distinct responses.

Clarified intercom requirements address signaling behavior, and the device type can now represent integrated chimes. Manufacturers can model products that combine camera, doorbell, chime, and intercom functions through a more consistent set of Matter interfaces.

Matter 1.5.1 strengthens recently introduced camera and communication-device functions without substantially expanding the device categories covered by the standard.

Matter 1.5 – Cameras, Closures, Soil Sensors, and Enhanced Energy Management

November 20, 2025

Matter 1.5 represents a major expansion of the standard, adding native cameras, a modular closures model, soil sensors, further energy-management functions, and transport support for larger data exchanges [3].

Native Camera Support

For the first time, manufacturers can build and certify cameras that connect directly with Matter-enabled ecosystems through a common application model. Earlier camera integrations generally relied on proprietary APIs and separate platform-specific implementations.

Matter cameras support live video and audio through WebRTC, including two-way communication and local or remote access using STUN and TURN. The specification also covers multiple streams, pan-tilt-zoom controls, detection and privacy zones, and continuous or event-based recording to local or cloud destinations.

Manufacturers can expose these interoperable functions through Matter while retaining advanced or differentiated features in their own applications and services.

Unified Support for Closures

A modular closures model covers window shades, drapes, awnings, gates, garage doors, smart windows, and related products.

Manufacturers can combine common building blocks to describe sliding, rotating, and opening movements, along with single-panel, dual-panel, and nested configurations. Controllers can then interpret position and movement through the same model across different closure designs.

Soil Sensors and Irrigation

Soil sensors can report moisture and, optionally, temperature for indoor plants, gardens, lawns, and landscaped areas.

Water valves and irrigation systems can use these readings to schedule watering according to measured soil conditions. The combination supports automation based on actual moisture levels instead of fixed schedules alone.

Expanded Energy Management

Matter 1.5 extends energy data exchange across utilities, grid services, smart meters, energy-producing systems, and connected devices. A new electrical energy tariff device type communicates current and forecasted prices, tariff structures, and grid carbon intensity.

Home energy systems and individual products can use that information to estimate operating costs or adjust activity according to tariffs, user preferences, and regional requirements. Energy data may also incorporate production from sources such as residential solar installations.

Smart-metering updates add historical consumption information and more complex time-varying tariffs. Utilities can also communicate grid-connection conditions and power limits, giving connected energy devices data needed to coordinate operation with local constraints.

Electric-vehicle charging gains certifiable state-of-charge reporting and bidirectional charging. These functions prepare Matter-based systems for energy-sharing and vehicle-to-grid scenarios where the vehicle, charger, utility, and applicable regulations support them.

TCP Transport and Large Messages

Matter 1.5 adds full TCP transport for operations involving larger data sets. Cameras are an obvious use case, but the transport can also carry larger firmware updates, images, and richer data types.

TCP supplements Matter’s existing transport mechanisms. Developers can use TCP for use cases involving larger or more data-intensive exchanges, while Matter’s existing transport mechanisms remain suitable for routine device communication.

Matter 1.5 brings more data-intensive and operationally complex products into the ecosystem. Camera media, privacy controls, storage, closure state modeling, energy-data exchange, and cross-platform behavior introduce development demands beyond those of earlier Matter device categories.

Matter 1.4.2 – Strengthening Security, Scalability, and Ecosystem Coordination

August 11, 2025

Matter 1.4.2 concentrates on security, commissioning, network capacity, device representation, and certification. Several features require coordinated support from device manufacturers, commissioners, and ecosystem platforms, even though the release remains backward compatible [4].

Wi-Fi-Only Commissioning

Wi-Fi Unsynchronized Service Discovery, or Wi-Fi USD, gives compatible Wi-Fi products a commissioning path that does not require a Bluetooth Low Energy radio solely for setup.

Removing that dependency can simplify eligible hardware and firmware designs. Some existing Wi-Fi-only products may also gain Matter through a firmware update when their processing, memory, security, and networking resources are sufficient.

Commissioners such as phones, hubs, and smart speakers must support Wi-Fi USD as well. Availability therefore depends on adoption by both the product and the target ecosystem.

Security Enhancements

Matter 1.4.2 adds several mechanisms for strengthening trust among devices, administrators, and network infrastructure.

Vendor ID Verification lets a Matter Controller confirm cryptographically that an administrator installed on a device represents the vendor it claims. The check is particularly relevant in Multi-Admin environments, where several ecosystems may hold credentials and control rights on the same product.

Access Restriction Lists give routers and access points operating as Network Infrastructure Managers a common way to restrict sensitive settings and data to trusted, verified controllers.

Certificate Revocation Lists provide a standard mechanism for identifying and revoking compromised or otherwise untrusted Device Attestation Certificates. Ecosystems can consult the revocation data during commissioning and warn users or block affected products from joining the network.

Certifiable Scenes

Scene support becomes certifiable in Matter 1.4.2. Controllers can define and activate coordinated states across several devices, including timed transitions such as gradual light fading.

A stored scene can reduce the number of separate commands required to coordinate participating devices. Ecosystems can still combine Matter and non-Matter products and retain their own scene interfaces.

Quieter Reporting

Matter devices report attribute changes to controllers, but frequent updates can increase network traffic and power consumption. Quieter Reporting extends to a wider range of device functions in Matter 1.4.2.

A device can omit intermediate values that do not require immediate action, such as each step in a long countdown or gradual transition. Fewer transmissions reduce network load and can extend battery life in larger installations.

Device Reconfiguration and Persistent Endpoint Identity

Connected products may change after commissioning through firmware updates, accessories, or user configuration. Matter 1.4.2 defines how a device informs controllers that its configuration has changed, allowing them to reevaluate the product without starting the setup process again.

Persistent Endpoint Unique IDs give individual components a stable identity. A power strip, for example, can preserve the identity of each controllable outlet across administrators, recommissioning, and supported cloud integrations. Stable identifiers help prevent duplicate or mismatched representations of the same physical endpoint.

Standardized Robot Vacuum Behavior

Robot vacuums receive more consistent rules for handling sequential commands. Earlier implementations could respond differently when a controller issued a new instruction during an active task.

The revised behavior gives platform developers a defined response model across products from different manufacturers.

Stronger Network Infrastructure Requirements

Matter Network Infrastructure Managers gain higher capacity and feature requirements. Thread Border Routers included in these devices must support at least 150 devices and hold Thread 1.4 certification. Wi-Fi access points must support at least 100 simultaneous associations, Extended Sleep, and Proxy ARP/NDP.

These requirements prepare certified infrastructure for larger Matter installations and a greater number of concurrently connected products.

Certification Improvements

Updated test plans, scripts, and certification tools expand coverage for valves, fans, access control, and the interaction data model. The revisions reduce ambiguity and improve the repeatability and automation of product validation.

Matter 1.4.2 strengthens the foundation needed for larger installations, dependable multi-ecosystem operation, and the more advanced product functions introduced in later releases.

Matter 1.4.1 – Streamlining Device Setup

May 7, 2025

Matter 1.4.1 is the standard’s first minor release. It focuses on commissioning, consent workflows, and multi-device setup, while expanding certification to the previously provisional specifications for Enhanced Setup Flow and NFC Tags [5].

Enhanced Setup Flow

The Enhanced Setup Flow, or ESF, allows a manufacturer’s terms and conditions to appear inside a compatible commissioner application. Users can review localized terms during setup, and their responses can be sent to the device so it can configure the relevant functions.

Products that required regulatory, privacy, or service-related consent previously relied mainly on a Custom Commissioning Flow. That process could direct users away from the ecosystem application and into the manufacturer’s app.

ESF keeps the consent step within the commissioning journey when the commissioner supports it. Otherwise, the product can fall back to the Custom Commissioning Flow. Manufacturers therefore need to account for both paths when designing onboarding and consent management.

Multi-Device Setup QR Code

A single QR code can contain the onboarding information for several devices. The option is intended for multi-packs of products such as light bulbs and smart plugs, where scanning each item separately creates unnecessary setup steps.

A compatible commissioner reads the shared code and guides the user through adding the associated products. Each physical item still joins the Matter environment as an individual device with its own identity and credentials.

Onboarding Information in NFC Tags

Manufacturers can place the same onboarding information found in a Matter QR code inside an NFC tag. A user retrieves the payload by tapping a compatible phone or commissioning device against the product.

NFC is useful when a printed code may become difficult to reach after installation, such as on an in-wall switch, ceiling fixture, or light bulb. It supplements QR and numeric setup codes with another way to deliver onboarding data.

In Matter 1.4.1, NFC carries the setup information used to begin commissioning. Bluetooth Low Energy still handles the commissioning exchange.

Matter 1.4.1 reduces friction in consent, packaging, and installation workflows while allowing completed features to enter certification between major releases.

Matter 1.4 – Expanding Home Infrastructure and Energy Management

November 7, 2024

Matter 1.4 strengthens the infrastructure behind connected homes, simplifies administration across ecosystems, and extends energy coordination to a wider range of products. It also introduces new device types and improves occupancy sensing and low-power operation [6].

Home Routers and Access Points

Matter 1.4 introduces certifiable Home Routers and Access Points, or HRAP devices. These products combine a Wi-Fi access point with a Thread Border Router, providing network infrastructure for devices using either technology.

HRAP devices also maintain a secure directory of Thread network credentials. New Thread products and additional Border Routers can join an existing network instead of creating separate networks within the same home.

Enhanced Multi-Admin

Multi-Admin allows a Matter device to connect to more than one smart home ecosystem. Earlier workflows generally required users to share each device with every additional platform individually.

Enhanced Multi-Admin lets users provide consent once so current and newly added devices can be shared through a more automated process. Implementation remains optional, giving platforms flexibility in how they present and manage the experience.

Solar Panels and Battery Storage

Matter 1.4 adds device types for solar power and battery storage, including solar inverters, panel arrays, hybrid solar-and-battery systems, residential storage, and Battery Energy Storage Systems.

Home energy systems can coordinate generation, storage, and household consumption. Batteries may store excess solar production, support load balancing, or discharge energy to the home or grid.

Heat Pumps and Water Heaters

Heat pumps can use energy-management capabilities to forecast consumption and adjust operation according to energy availability or demand.

Electric water heaters can expose hot-water levels, schedules, temperature presets, and temporary boost commands. A boost increases heating for short-term demand while preserving the normal schedule.

Electric-Vehicle Charging Improvements

Matter 1.4 expands the Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment functions introduced in Matter 1.3. Users can specify charging preferences, including when the vehicle should be ready.

An energy-management system can use those preferences to select charging periods according to user convenience and energy cost.

Device Energy Management

Energy-consuming products can adjust their operation in response to forecasts and power-management requests. A device may delay its start, pause activity, or choose a different operating mode when flexibility is available.

The Device Energy Management Mode cluster identifies whether optimization is controlled by the product, a local home energy system, or a wider grid service. This helps devices and external systems coordinate responsibility for energy decisions.

Thermostat Schedules and Presets

Thermostats gain standardized schedules and preset modes such as home, away, and vacation.

Users, motion detection, calendar events, or automations can activate a preset, giving ecosystems a common way to apply recurring temperature preferences.

Mounted On/Off and Dimmable Load Controls

New device types represent fixed, in-wall controls that supply power to lights, fans, and conventional appliances.

Earlier implementations often represented these products as lights regardless of the connected load. The new models distinguish the wall control from the equipment it operates, improving interface presentation and automation behavior.

Enhanced Occupancy Sensing

Occupancy sensors can use radar, vision, and ambient-sensing technologies and expose configurable sensitivity. Event-based reporting also communicates occupancy changes without relying on constant state updates.

A common model lets ecosystems work with several sensing technologies while leaving room for functions such as person detection and activity classification.

Longer Battery Life for Intermittently Connected Devices

Long Idle Time support allows Intermittently Connected Devices such as sensors, switches, and buttons to remain inactive for longer periods. The Check-In Protocol enables reliable communication with controllers while the device remains in a low-power state.

Matter 1.4 also reduces unnecessary reports for predictable attribute changes. Lower network activity can extend battery life and reduce the chance that a sleeping device is treated as unavailable.

Matter 1.4 establishes the infrastructure, energy, and low-power foundations expanded in later specification releases.

Matter 1.3 – Energy and Water Management, Major Appliances, and Media Experiences

May 8, 2024

Matter 1.3 extends the standard into energy and water management, electric-vehicle charging, kitchen and laundry appliances, and richer interactions with televisions and other screen-based devices. It also adds scenes, command batching, and improvements to network commissioning and development tooling [7].

Energy Reporting

Products can report actual or estimated measurements such as instantaneous power, voltage, current, and energy consumption or generation over time.

Controllers and energy applications can use the same data model for dashboards, usage analysis, automations, and optimization across products from different manufacturers.

Electric-Vehicle Charging

Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment, or EVSE, can expose controls for starting and stopping a charging session, adjusting the charging rate, and defining the amount of range needed by a specified departure time.

Charging systems can use those preferences to schedule operation during lower-cost or lower-carbon charging periods when the required information and platform services are present.

Water Management

Matter 1.3 introduces leak and freeze detectors, rain sensors, and controllable water valves.

An ecosystem can combine these device types in an automation, such as closing a valve after a leak is detected. The platform determines how the action, notification, and user experience are handled.

Additional Kitchen Appliances

Microwave ovens, conventional ovens, cooktops, and extractor hoods become supported device types.

Microwave ovens can expose cooking time, power level, operating mode, and cycle status. Over-the-range products may also provide control over an integrated light and extractor fan.

Ovens can represent individual compartments, operating modes, target temperatures, and states such as preheating or cooling. Cooktops can expose individual heating elements, including temperature control and measurement where safety regulations permit.

Extractor hoods can provide fan-speed and lighting controls together with filter condition or remaining-life information.

Laundry Dryers

Matter 1.3 extends the appliance model from laundry washers to dryers. Compatible products can report drying modes, target temperature, cycle status, completion, and manufacturer-defined error conditions.

Remote start and stop may be available where product design and local safety requirements permit.

Media Devices and Screen-Based Notifications

Televisions and media players gain improvements to casting initialization, application interaction, text and track selection, search, push messages, and on-screen dialogs.

Other Matter devices can use supported notification functions to present information on a television or similar screen. A household display might show that a laundry cycle has finished or that a robot vacuum requires attention. The ecosystem controls which devices may send notifications and how they appear.

Scenes

A scene stores a coordinated set of device states, such as the brightness and color of several lights, for recall through one action.

Participating devices can store which scenes they are part of. Activation can then require fewer individual commands and produce more synchronized responses.

Command Batching

Controllers can combine several commands into one message. This reduces timing differences between related actions and helps groups of devices respond together.

The feature is particularly useful for bridges and lighting groups, but it also applies to coordinated interactions that do not require a stored scene.

Network Commissioning and Developer Improvements

Wi-Fi devices can report their supported frequency bands, while mandatory directed scanning improves network discovery and setup diagnostics. Thread devices can communicate their Thread version and supported functions.

The release also extends the initial commissioning-advertisement period, improves event-timestamp synchronization, updates several clusters, and adds tooling that generates SDK cluster descriptions from specification definitions. These revisions help keep the written specification and software implementations aligned.

Matter 1.3 establishes a broad foundation for energy reporting, EV charging, water management, appliances, and media interactions.

Matter 1.2 – New Appliances, Environmental Devices, and Stronger Device Modeling

October 23, 2023

Matter 1.2 adds nine device types spanning household appliances, environmental monitoring, safety, air treatment, and robotic cleaning. It also improves how complex products describe their appearance, internal structure, functions, and operating states to controllers [8].

Refrigerators and Room Air Conditioners

Refrigerators, freezers, wine coolers, kimchi refrigerators, and related products can expose temperature control and monitoring through Matter.

Standalone room air conditioners also receive their own device model. Although earlier releases already covered thermostats and broader HVAC systems, Matter 1.2 represents individual room units with functions such as temperature adjustment and fan-mode control.

Dishwashers and Laundry Washers

Dishwashers can report cycle progress, completion, and conditions involving water supply, drainage, temperature, or the door lock. Remote start may be available where the manufacturer’s safety design and applicable regulations permit it.

Laundry washers can communicate progress and cycle completion through the same interoperable appliance framework.

Robotic Vacuums

Robotic vacuum cleaners, including products that combine dry vacuuming and wet mopping, can report cleaning modes, operational status, charging status, brush condition, and errors.

The model establishes a common representation for robotic-cleaning functions and operating states across manufacturers.

Smoke and Carbon-Monoxide Alarms

Smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms can expose alarm notifications, audio and visual signaling status, battery warnings, end-of-life information, and self-test functions.

Carbon-monoxide devices may also report measured concentration levels.

Air-Quality Sensors and Air Purifiers

Air-quality sensors can report particulate matter, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, ozone, radon, formaldehyde, and other supported measurements. The Air Quality cluster can also communicate an index calculated for the device’s location.

Air purifiers combine air-quality sensing with required fan functions and optional thermostat behavior. They can report the condition or remaining life of components such as HEPA and activated-carbon filters, allowing ecosystems to surface maintenance needs.

Fans

Fans become a separate certifiable device type with functions for speed, forward and reverse airflow, oscillation, and modes such as natural wind and sleep wind.

A dedicated model lets ecosystems represent fans directly instead of treating them as generic switches or manufacturer-specific products.

Improved Support for Complex Devices

Hierarchical endpoint composition describes how the parts of a complex product relate to one another. An appliance can identify its compartments, a power strip its individual outlets, or a multi-button control its separate inputs.

Semantic tags add information about an endpoint’s location or purpose. Controllers can use them to determine which button performs a specific action or which light belongs to part of a multi-light fixture.

Device Appearance and Operating States

Products can communicate physical details such as color and finish, helping ecosystem applications represent them consistently in the user interface.

Generic operating states cover conditions such as running, paused, completed, or in error. The same model can be reused across appliances and other products with cyclical workflows.

Door-Lock Improvements

Door-lock support expands to configurations common in European markets, including products that combine a latch with a separate bolt.

Controllers can represent the state and operation of both mechanisms instead of treating the lock as a single undifferentiated component.

SDK, Testing, and Certification Updates

The Matter 1.2 SDK broadens platform support and gives manufacturers more implementation options.

The Matter Test Harness also becomes available as an open-source resource. Developers can work with current test cases, identify problems earlier, and contribute improvements to the shared testing infrastructure.

Updated certification tools and test coverage accompany the new device types and specification changes, helping align the written requirements, software implementation, and formal validation.

Matter 1.2 considerably broadens the range of products covered by Matter while establishing reusable models for appliance state, endpoint composition, semantic meaning, and environmental data.

Matter 1.1 – Improving Battery-Powered Devices and Developer Workflows

May 18, 2023

Matter 1.1 is a maintenance-focused release shaped by lessons from early implementations. Its main changes address battery-powered devices, specification clarity, SDK usability, and certification workflows [9].

Intermittently Connected Devices

Intermittently Connected Devices, or ICDs, include battery-powered products such as contact sensors, motion sensors, temperature sensors, door locks, and switches that remain inactive for periods of time to conserve energy.

Matter 1.1 reduces the chance that controllers will report these devices as offline when a user or platform attempts to reach them. Manufacturers gain a better balance between power conservation and dependable availability.

Specification and SDK Improvements

Clarifications and cleanup across the specification and open-source SDK address ambiguities identified by early adopters.

The release also improves guidance for developers contributing new device types, helping the written requirements, shared codebase, and future extensions remain aligned.

Testing and Certification Automation

More automated testing helps manufacturers identify implementation problems before formal certification and improves the efficiency of validation performed by Authorized Testing Laboratories.

The certification model itself remains unchanged. The improvements strengthen the tools used to verify conformance and reduce avoidable failures during laboratory testing.

Matter 1.1 does not broaden the device catalog. Its contribution is a more dependable foundation for battery-powered products and a clearer development and certification process after the Matter 1.0 launch.

Matter 1.0 – Establishing the Foundation for Interoperability

October 4, 2022

Matter 1.0 established a common IP-based application layer and data model for connected products from different manufacturers and smart home platforms. The release also launched the certification program and delivered the open-source SDK, test harnesses, test tools, and laboratory support needed to develop and validate compliant products [10].

Operational Connectivity

Matter operates over Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Thread. These technologies provide the IP networks that carry Matter communication; they are separate from the application protocol itself.

Wi-Fi serves products that need greater bandwidth or a direct connection to an existing wireless network. Thread provides a low-power IPv6 mesh for constrained devices such as sensors, locks, and controls. Ethernet suits fixed products and infrastructure where wired connectivity is appropriate.

Bluetooth Low Energy supported discovery and commissioning in the original release. It was not used as the device’s normal operational network [11].

Initial Device Categories

The first release covered lighting and electrical products, HVAC controls, window coverings, safety and security sensors, door locks, televisions and media devices, controllers, and bridges.

Matter bridges represent supported functions from products using other technologies, including Zigbee and Z-Wave. The underlying products remain on their original networks while the bridge exposes them through the Matter data model [11].

Standardized Device Interaction

Matter defines common device types, clusters, attributes, commands, and events. Controllers use this model to discover what a product can do and operate supported functions across manufacturers.

Product makers can continue to offer advanced features through their own applications and cloud services. Matter provides a common layer for core functions while leaving room for differentiated product experiences [11].

Commissioning and Multi-Admin

Matter 1.0 introduced setup through QR or numeric onboarding codes, device attestation, and Bluetooth Low Energy discovery and commissioning. Once setup is complete, the device receives credentials for secure communication within a Matter fabric.

Multi-Admin allows the same product to join more than one smart home ecosystem. Each administrator receives separate credentials and access rights, preventing one platform from retaining exclusive control of the device [11].

Security and Device Identity

Every Matter device has a unique identity. Certificate-based attestation helps a commissioner verify the product before admitting it to a network, while encrypted communication and access-control policies govern later interactions [11].

Public Key Infrastructure supports the certificates and trust relationships used during attestation. The Distributed Compliance Ledger serves a different purpose by publishing cryptographically signed information about certified product models, including provenance, certification status, and relevant setup or operating data.

The ledger records product-model information rather than an entry for every individual device. Commissioners and other ecosystem participants can consult it when evaluating a product [12].

Certification and Development Resources

Matter 1.0 launched with authorized laboratories, an open certification program, a completed reference SDK, test cases, test harnesses, and supporting tools.

Certification verifies conformance with the applicable Matter specification. Products must also satisfy the requirements of the organizations governing their underlying network technologies. A Wi-Fi or Thread product therefore needs both Matter certification and the applicable transport certification [13].

Matter 1.0 established the architecture carried through later releases: a shared application model, IP-based communication, standardized commissioning, device identity, access control, certification infrastructure, and administration across multiple ecosystems.

Developing Against an Evolving Matter Specification

Matter releases expand the capabilities available to connected products, but adoption decisions depend on the product architecture and on support across vendor SDKs, commissioners, controllers, mobile platforms, and commercial ecosystems. A capability introduced in a newer specification may therefore become available before every dependency in the product environment supports it.

The impact of a specification change can extend across several parts of the product. New networking or commissioning options may affect hardware and application design, new device capabilities can change how functionality is represented and presented to users, and some changes may introduce additional testing or certification work. The relevant question is whether a capability fits the product roadmap and can be supported reliably across the intended environments.

Existing products also do not need to adopt every capability introduced in a newer Matter release. Some features may be delivered through firmware updates, while others can require revised hardware, additional ecosystem support, or updated certification. A version strategy should distinguish what belongs in the current product, what can be added later, and what should wait for a future product or ecosystem release.

For deeper guidance on implementation decisions, see Building Matter Smart Home Devices: Architecture and Development , Matter Smart Home Development, and Matter Certification

Matter Development Services

Krasamo helps companies evaluate how Matter specification changes affect existing and planned connected products. Our work can include version planning, architecture assessment, firmware and application development, ecosystem integration, interoperability testing, certification preparation, and lifecycle support.

For existing products, we can assess whether newer Matter capabilities fit the current hardware and software architecture, which changes can be delivered through firmware, and where ecosystem support or certification requirements affect the adoption path.

Talk to Our Matter Development Team

References

[1] Connectivity Standards Alliance. “Matter 1.6 Enables More Intuitive Setup, Multi-Ecosystem Experiences, and Context-Driven Control.” June 17, 2026.

[2] Connectivity Standards Alliance. “Matter 1.5.1: Enhancing Camera Performance and Expanding Device Flexibility.” March 31, 2026.

[3] Connectivity Standards Alliance. “Matter 1.5 Introduces Cameras, Closures, and Enhanced Energy Management Capabilities.” November 20, 2025.

[4] Connectivity Standards Alliance. “Matter 1.4.2: Enhancing Security and Scalability for Smart Homes.” August 11, 2025.

[5] Connectivity Standards Alliance. “A Smarter Start: Matter 1.4.1 Makes Setup Easier.” May 7, 2025.

[6] Connectivity Standards Alliance. “Matter 1.4 Enables More Capable Smart Homes.” November 7, 2024.

[7] Connectivity Standards Alliance. “Matter 1.3 Specification Released.” May 8, 2024.

[8] Connectivity Standards Alliance. “Matter 1.2 Arrives with Nine New Device Types & Improvements Across the Board.” October 23, 2023.

[9] Connectivity Standards Alliance. “Matter 1.1: Enhancements for Developers and Devices.” May 18, 2023.

[10] Connectivity Standards Alliance. “Matter Arrives Bringing a More Interoperable, Simple and Secure Internet of Things to Life.” October 4, 2022.

[11] Connectivity Standards Alliance. “Matter FAQs.”

[12] Connectivity Standards Alliance. “Distributed Compliance Ledger.”

[13] Connectivity Standards Alliance. “Certification Process.”