Amazon announces a phased rollout of Matter to its Alexa smart home platform
by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy from The Verge - All Posts on (#65DZG)
Amazon's latest smart speaker, the fifth-gen Echo Dot with Clock, will be a Matter controller next month. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
Amazon will start its Matter journey slowly, bringing support for the new smart home standard to 17 Echo devices in December. But this first rollout will only be Matter over Wi-Fi (no Thread, yet), compatible only with Android phones, and cover just three device types: smart plugs, smart bulbs, and smart switches. Amazon announced the news at the Matter launch event in Amsterdam this week and says it will expand the rollout to iOS and Thread early next year, when it will also add more of the device types Matter supports.
The company, which is a founding member of the new smart home interoperability standard, also announced that Matter device makers will need to go through Amazon's Works With Alexa program to get the WWA badge on their...