Amazon to Roll Out Matter Support on Alexa-Powered Devices by December

Amazon today announced that it will roll out support for Matter across the Alexa ecosystem by the end of next month.

“As a founding member and key contributor of Matter, we are incredibly excited about the completion of the Matter SDK program and Matter launch,” Amazon’s Marja Koopmans announced. “Matter will help to simplify development and fuel innovation while lowering adoption barriers for our shared customers,  an important advancement that complements our smart home philosophy of openness and collaboration.”

Amazon plans to make as many Alexa-powered devices compatible with Matter as possible, and it notes that it will eventually bring Matter support to well over 100 million devices, across 30 Echo and Eero devices. But it will start a bit smaller than that, with Matter over Wi-Fi support coming to 17 different Echo devices, plugs, switches, and bulbs via Android this December. Broader availability across iPhone, Thread, additional device types, and remaining Echo and Eero devices will happen early next year.

Amazon also said that it was partnering with Samsung, another early Matter member, to make it easier to set up Matter-compatible devices no matter which ecosystem they choose. Customers will be able to opt-in to controlling their Matter devices using Alexa or SmartThings without having to duplicate the setup in the other ecosystem.

For smart home developers looking to support Matter, Amazon offers a Works with Alexa (WWA) program that is expanding to include a Matter certification. That is, any WWA-branded devices going forward will be certified to work with Matter as well.

“The launch of Matter today is only the first step in making the smart home interoperable and easier,” Koopmans added. “We look forward to working together to continue raising the bar on the customer experience, and deliver new devices and experiences to power ambient smart homes both now and in the future.”