Why Are There No Matter Compatible Security Cameras?

Cameras are increasingly important around the home. Internal security cameras, external cameras, baby and pet monitoring cameras, and doorbell cams – they’re as ubiquitous as webcams and smartphone cameras. Some appear on smart home hubs, too.

Connecting over Wi-Fi (and sometimes Ethernet), these devices are one of the early successes for the smart home market. But curiously, you can’t find a Matter-compatible security camera anywhere. No easy-to-use, interoperable cams at all.

Matter promises usability and runs on Wi-Fi (as well as other wireless protocols), yet it cannot handle video.

Why is this?

Matter and Media

On the face of things, it might seem unlikely that there are no Matter-compatible cameras. After all, with the popularity of indoor and outdoor security cameras, you would think that some of them supported Matter.

In fact, you might even think you’ve seen one. But you haven’t. What you have probably seen is a camera mounted on a device with Matter. For example, the Aqara Camera Hub G3 has Matter support in the hub, but not the camera.

Streaming video over Matter is a major problem for cameras. Matter Casting is in development, but is likely to be limited to notification popups and screen mirroring for the time being. Some Panasonic TVs with Fire TV built in support this, as does the Amazon Echo Show 15.

The Technical Challenges of Matter Cameras

While the idea of a Matter-compatible camera is attractive to anyone building out a new smart home, the practicalities are somewhat different.

Streaming high quality video is difficulty, especially if the medium is a new smart home standard. Video has to be encoded and decoded before streaming, all of which requires dedicated resources. Streaming video over Wi-Fi or Thread is a challenge without the correct bandwidth management in place. There is also the processing power and energy use to consider – especially when considering a battery-powered camera.

One of the key strengths of Matter is security. It is known for not sharing Wi-Fi credentials, and is the most secure, widely-used smart home platform to date. Video data requires the same level of encryption as any other data on your smart home network.

Other limits are playing a part in Matter not supporting cameras.

Data security, the storage of data on a camera (either via NAS, SD, eMMC, etc.), and the requirement for video streaming support across the Matter network are all important considerations.

Then you've got the issue of existing smart home market fragmentation (something that Matter is designed to overcome), and the lack of consumer recognition or understanding of the standard. This last concern is at least being dealt with thanks to faster certification for OEMs.

Cameras Don’t Matter, Until They Do

There is also the factor of individual cameras.

Device-specific camera features limit connectivity with existing smart home setups. If you can access one home security camera with Google Home, you probably can’t get the same level of control with a different one.

Cameras are very different from one manufacturer to another. Night vision, motion detection, AI-powered analytics, they’re all achieved in slightly different ways. Matter support is already limited for relatively standardized systems (lighting, for example), so it seems unlikely that it is ready to deal with the existing range of home security cameras and doorbell-mounted cameras.

New cameras, specifically with Matter support, are required to overcome this shortcoming. Looking at the Matter 1.4 specification, it seems that video streaming support and control of smart security cameras remains some way off. However, our sources indicate it could come as early as Matter 1.5 or 1.6 revisions. 

There Are Currently No Matter Compatible Security Cameras

If you’ve made it this far and still haven’t got the reasoning behind the lack of Matter security cameras, it’s simple: the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which oversees Matter development, has opted to ignore home security cameras and similar devices at this time.

Expanding support to other smart devices is considered more important – and you can see why this might be. They’re building a new smart home platform, and getting the basics right first.

At some point in the future it seems likely that home security cameras and smart doorbell cams will support Matter, whether over Wi-Fi or Thread. Until such a time, you’ll need to make-do with what is available. Technical hurdles, market fragmentation, and consumer education challenges all contribute to this slow progress. The future of Matter hinges on overcoming these obstacles to achieve a seamless smart home experience.