Bosch: Matter is a “Game changer”

One of the main reasons that we're interested in Matter is that it promises to make the smart home easier to use.

The key word is interoperability. With Matter, everything is available through a single app;  without Matter, your smart home can only be accessed through a dedicated app for each device, or if you're lucky, a sympathetic, smart home ecosystem - Google Home or Amazon Alexa or Apple HomeKit, whatever.

But while progress is being made, a complete transition to the Matter smart home is some way off.

So what is the answer? Well, Bosch's Christian Thess believes that Matter can succeed through collaboration between different smart home manufacturers.

Competition “Doesn’t Help”

Matter promises to get rid of all that messing around with multiple apps and ecosystems and just give you control over everything via one Matter-compatible ecosystem, along with its related app and smart assistant.

In a recent interview, Thess (who is Managing Director of Bosch Smart Home) discussed the importance of the Matter smart home standard. Thess believes that Matter will be a game changer for the industry, as it will make it easier for consumers to set up and use smart home devices.

"Matter is not just one initiative," Thess said. "There is a big drive of the big companies to lower this interoperability challenge and this communication challenge. I believe we all have a common interest. We want to make user-friendly innovation experiences and use cases, and the competition world amongst us doesn't help there sometimes.”

Matter Success Requires Collaboration

Thess also emphasized the importance of collaboration between different companies in order to make Matter a success. "We need to collaborate, and with Matter, we realize that this fruitful discussion and exchange is driving the industry forward. We need to work together to make sure that Matter is as user-friendly as possible," he said. "We also need to make sure that Matter is compatible with as many different devices as possible."

Thess is confident that Matter will be a success, and that it will help to make smart home technology more accessible to consumers. "Matter is a great opportunity for the smart home industry," he said. "It will make it easier for consumers to set up and use smart home devices, and it will help to drive innovation in the industry."

Future Prospects for Matter

Progress with Matter has undeniably being slow. However, in recent months, it seems that things have changed slightly. Certainly, the range of new Matter-compatible smart home devices we saw at CES 2025 point towards the smart home pace picking up in the Matter sphere.

Whether the next iteration of Matter (due in Spring 2025) can capitalize on that remains to be seen, but we are hopeful.