Home Automation

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Discussion about general home automation ideas and projects, home automation protocols like Z-wave, Zigbee, Matter, etc, and home automation software and hubs like HomeSeer, Home Assistant, OpenHAB, Homey.

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Matter vs Zigbee: what is Matter actually replacing? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/homeautomation

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I just started my journey into Home Automation, and I think I am starting to understand better what Matter actually signifies...

So, Zigbee is just a communication protocol, and the definition of smart devices is actually done by ZHA, Zigbee2MQTT, etc... correct?

So Matter actually reduces all those Zigbee sub-protocols into one thing, so one Matter bulb will be always compatible, you don't need to pick like we do now with ZHA, Zigbee2MQTT... correct?

And then, the Zigbee communication is substituted either with Thread (basically Zigbee technology but for Matter) or Wi-Fi. But the smart device definition is still Matter, so a bulb will always behave like Matter specifies, in terms of variables and parameters.

Am I getting close?

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[–] Diogenes59 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Matter standardises the communication. Different manufacturers can report values and controls differently for their bulbs. If the bulbs have matter support your “base station”/server can send the same “turn on/off” to the different bulbs without having code specific for that brand/model. This CAN allow us to skip brand specific bridges and such, or as in the philips hue case. All bulbs are exposed as matter devices through their bridge.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, so it's more or less what I was thinking. This is something that currently does NOT exist with Zigbee, right? I could have a Zigbee light bulb that speaks in a specific obscure language, whereas all Matter lightbulbs understand and send the same information.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Yes but, matter standardises what is plugged into the Ethernet network. So easier for home assistant and others to work together.

Unfortunately, you will still need zigbee2mqtt / ZHA to get different vendors zogbee devices to work. I think z2m is looking at matter support.