Today, buying a smart home product means confirming which ecosystems the product works with by looking for the little "Works with Apple Home" or "Works with Google" badges on the packaging. Matter should have eliminated these badges because if a product is compatible with Matter, it should be compatible with all the big smart home platforms. But that hasn't happened yet, so now we have one more badge to look for.
However, it will become simpler for manufacturers to obtain all these badges. The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), which manages Matter, announced today that Apple, Google and Samsung will all accept certification from the Alliance for its "WorksWith" program:
The Alliance is very pleased to announce that Apple has begun accepting the results of WorksWithAppleHome testing of Matter devices by the Alliance Interop Lab (Alliance InteropLab). Google and Samsung will also conduct the same testing for their respective WorksWithGoogleHome and WorksWithSmartThings certifications later this year, which highlights the credibility and reliability of the Alliance's testing program.
This means device manufacturers no longer have to test their gadgets individually for each platform's "WorksWith" badge. If they achieve "MatterDevice" certification from the CSA, they can show their results to the rest of the ecosystem and earn those badges without having to do any more testing. This provides great convenience to device manufacturers and brings us one step closer to the goal of "one badge to rule all badges." (It’s worth noting that Amazon has yet to announce its participation in AlexaWorks).
CSA also announced a new "FastTrackRecertificationProgram" and "PortfolioCertificationProgram" to allow companies to certify multiple products more efficiently. I often hear smart home companies complain that when they make changes or updates to their devices, obtaining certification and recertification from Matter is a laborious and expensive process that slows down their development efforts. The CSA said the two new programs streamline both processes, reducing cost and complexity.