How do air purifiers benefit from Matter compatibility?

Air purifiers are the kind of device that can sit running 24/7 in the background with need for little interaction, so it's not immediately obvious what they gain from Matter compatibility. What features make it worth adding an air purifier to your smart home?

You gain remote control over your purifier

This is the foundational feature we expect from any smart device: the ability to turn a device on and off from any room of the house or, even, when you're not at home. While many air purifiers can run non-stop, that doesn't mean you need to. If you're looking to preserve power or extend the life of your air filter, you can remotely toggle a Matter-compatible air purifier on and off as needed.

What features are supported through Matter varies based on the manufacturer and your smart home platform, so in some cases this may be the only feature you actually gain. You have to look into the specifcs of each model, even when picking from our list of the best Matter-compatible air purifiers.

Adjust the fan motor speed

This is the second feature you're most likely to see supported through Matter—the ability to toggle the device's fan. An air purifier can move a lot of air at once, but there's a range of speed settings available.

A low setting doesn't move air as quickly, but it only sips power and is quiet enough not to draw your attention. The highest setting uses the most power and sounds like someone cranked up an exhaust fan. With Matter, you don't have to walk over to the unit when you need to adjust the speed. 

Set timers

This feature may be even more useful than not having to walk over to your purifier to adjust the speed. When I do turn the fan up on mine, I often forget to turn it back down.

Air purifiers can make quick and speedy work of polluted air, which means you rarely need to run them on the highest setting for hours at a time. Often ten minutes will suffice. A Matter-compatible air purifier lets you set timers from your phone so that you don't have to double back to each air purifier and manually turn them down afterward.

Switch between specialized modes

While most air purifiers allow you to adjust fan speeds, some also have other modes. An auto mode is the most common, since an air purifier that can react automatically to air quality is one you can largely forget you even own.

SwitchBot Air Purifier

The SwitchBot Air Purifier Table is a smart, multifunctional device that combines efficient air purification, wireless charging, and atmospheric lighting, with seamless Matter integration for compatibility across major smart home ecosystems.

Buy at Amazon US for $219.99

Yet there are times when the air purifier might not detect a change in quality, or maybe it doesn't respond in the way that you need. Matter allows you to switch between these modes from your smart home hub.

Create automated routines

For many, automation is what the smart home vision is all about. While controlling a device from your phone offers convenience over pressing buttons manually, it's even better when things happen automatically!

Some air purifiers have auto settings that tell them to crank their speeds up or down based on air quality, but you can schedule routines based on your own behaviors instead. Tell an air purifier in the home office to turn on at 9AM and turn off at 5PM. Tell the bedroom air purifier to run on its lowest setting over night. Preemptively crank the air purifier nearest the kitchen up during the times of the day when you do your cooking. There's a lot of fun you can have with this one, and once you've set things up, you can largely forget that you have an air purifier at all.

Measure air quality

Since air purifiers with auto settings need to be able to measure air quality in order to automatically respond, they're collecting information that you might find useful to see yourself. A Matter-compatible air purifer could feasibly send that information to your phone, allowing you to know at a glance the state of the air in your home. For now, this is functionality we're waiting to see baked into new or existing models, which currently are more likely to place this information inside their own custom app rather than expose it through Matter.

AiDot WELOV P100 Pro Smart Air Purifiers

AiDot WELOV P100 Pro Smart Air Purifiers with low Noise

View Product Info

Will Your Next Air Purifier Matter?

While any of these features is useful on its own, they're all more than standalone options. Each one can be paired with another as you create your own automations. Set a timer to remotely turn an air purifier off, then have a routine that turns it back on. Leave the air purifier on auto for most of the day, then crank it up during cooking hours. Also, what's possible today is not all that will be possible, as updates roll out both to smart home platforms and the Matter protocol itself.

In the meantime, you could always buy a device like the SwitchBot Air Purifier Table that doubles as both a table and wireless charger.