Following the agreement between Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung, and dozens of other companies to make setting up smart homes easier with a cross-platform open-source gadget known as Matter, Amazon has revealed its commitment to upgrade almost every plug-in Echo smart speaker to support the device.
This was revealed during Amazon’s Alexa Live developer event on Wednesday.
During the event, Amazon revealed quite a few additional things that Alexa developers will soon be able to do. According to the company in its message to Matter developers said: “We will soon be rolling out tools that make it easy for you to build Matter certified devices, and are ready to start testing your Matter devices now.”
The company also revealed the smart speaker that will support Matter, which includes most Echo and Echo Dot speakers, and every Echo Studio, Echo Show, Echo Plus, and Echo Flex.
A representative from Amazon told The Verge that the only Echo smart speakers that won’t get upgraded to Matter are the first-gen Echo, first-gen Echo Dot, and Echo Tag.
Meanwhile, Amazon did not provide a timeline for the upgrading but the general idea is that Matter will be launch before the end of 2021, so it shouldn’t be long until the company’s newest or more popular devices receive the capability.
Matter, a gadget that will enable Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung, and other companies to work together in an open standard. A deceptively simple device that allows the connectivity of all smart home devices.
The bigger question is whether any of the companies will work as Matter hubs because, in May, Google announced to upgrade its Nest devices to Matter, stating that it would allow its devices that support the Thread protocol (like the Nest Wi-Fi, Nest Hub Max, and second-gen Nest Hub) to double as connection hubs for Matter, not simply as a voice assistant to control Matter gadgets.
However, while Amazon’s Eero routers were early to adopt Thread, Amazon Echo smart speakers were not.
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