DAVIS, March 11 — The Connectivity Standards Alliance on Tuesday published Matter 1.4, the smart-home interoperability standard’s largest update in more than a year, adding energy-management device classes, long-pending camera and doorbell categories, and a redesigned multi-admin commissioning flow.
The release is the seventh point-version update to Matter since the standard’s original 1.0 release in late 2022 and is being characterized by member companies as the most substantively expanded device coverage to date. Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, and the broader CSA membership all contributed to the 1.4 working groups, the alliance said.
“Matter 1.4 is the release where the standard meaningfully covers the categories that homeowners actually shop for,” said Tobias Andriessen-Park, a senior product manager at SmartThings and a member of the Matter steering committee, in an interview with Consumer Tech Wire. “Cameras and doorbells were the most-requested gap from 1.3. Energy management is the next frontier — heat pumps, EV chargers, battery storage, demand-response signaling. 1.4 lands the first usable version of all of it.”
What is in the release
The energy-management device classes added in 1.4 include heat pumps, electric vehicle service equipment, battery energy storage, and a generalized “energy meter” device type. The standard also adds a demand-response cluster that smart-grid utilities can use to signal load-shedding events to consenting devices, a category Matter has not previously supported.
For cameras and doorbells, the specification adds device types for fixed cameras, pan-tilt cameras, and battery-powered doorbells with two-way audio, with media-stream provisioning that the alliance said is “designed to enable end-to-end-encrypted streaming on a per-controller basis.”
The multi-admin commissioning flow, which has been the most-criticized friction point in Matter since the original 1.0 release, has been redesigned around a single QR-code commissioning event that can authorize up to three controllers — for example, Apple Home, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa — at the same time. Previously, each controller required its own commissioning step.
Adoption timing
Member companies said 1.4-compliant device firmware will begin shipping in second-quarter 2026 device launches, with software-side support expected in the iOS, Android, and Fire OS releases scheduled for the second half of the year.
“The interesting question with every Matter release is not the spec but the deployment lag,” said Cassandra Mukherjee-Olafsson, an analyst at the smart-home research firm Telemark. “Matter 1.3 added improved Thread network performance in mid-2024, and we are still waiting on broad consumer-side rollout. The 1.4 deployment will be measured the same way — by what shows up at retail in the second half of the year.”
The alliance said it will host a Matter 1.4 developer event in Seattle in June, alongside a manufacturer-side certification workshop. The standard’s certification program is open to CSA member companies and uses an authorized test-house network for compliance testing.
Asari Whitfield-Asari covers AI tools and developer infrastructure for Consumer Tech Wire.