KNX smart homes are great but you might find yourself stuck in a wired world as it is really hard to integrate other products. And while KNX is definitely a reliable and long-lasting technology there is a whole new world of exciting wireless devices for music, security, cleaning, and more. You have one smart home – and you should only have one mobile app for controlling it.

1Home Bridge still depends on the 1Home cloud to some extent, mostly due to the requirements of the older proprietary assistant integrations.

Matter enables different devices and ecosystems to play nicely. Device manufacturers must comply with the Matter standard to ensure their devices are compatible with smart home and voice services such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, and others. For folks building a smart home, Matter theoretically lets you buy any device and use the voice assistant or platform you prefer to control it (yes, you can use different voice assistants to talk to the same product).

For example, you can buy a Matter-supported smart bulb and set it up with Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, or Amazon Alexa—without having to worry about compatibility. Right now, some devices already support multiple platforms (like Alexa or Google Assistant), but Matter will expand that platform support and make setting up your new devices faster and easier.

The first protocol runs on Wi-Fi and Thread network layers and uses Bluetooth Low Energy for device setup. While it supports various platforms, you must choose the voice assistants and apps you want to use—there is no central Matter app or assistant. Because Matter works on your local network, you can expect your smart home devices to be more responsive to you, and they should continue to work even when your internet goes down.