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Apple (Mostly) Puts Its Money Where Its Mouth Is With New Smart Home Gear

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Apple (Mostly) Puts Its Money Where Its Mouth Is With New Smart Home Gear

Apple’s announcement of a big pile of LG- and- Schneider-developed smart home gear—alongside its new HomePod mini 2 and HomeView smart display gadgets—carries a bonus for non-Apple users. With the exception of LG’s new cameras, each of the new devices supports Matter, meaning although the company presents them primarily as Apple Home devices, you can use them with any old ecosystem you like.

For those who may not know, Apple is a major contributor to Matter, and the protocol is partly based on Apple’s HomeKit tech. It’s encouraging that the new LG smart lock and LG and Schneider thermostats and temperature sensors will work in other smart home ecosystems. (The company hasn’t yet updated its system to the version of the protocol that works with cameras.) Before I settled on Apple Home, I switched between all three of the major platforms and had to leave behind some devices I liked because, back then, the smart home was walled gardens as far as the eye could see.

Other companies that participate in the Matter effort include Google, Samsung, and Amazon. Yet of these four big companies, only Google has actually produced Matter-compatible accessories: two of its Nest thermostat devices. Devices made by Amazon and its subsidiaries, Ring and Blink, don’t work outside of the Amazon software umbrella. And Samsung’s smart home appliances tend to have per-platform third-party ecosystem support rather than Matter compatibility. All three companies do at least sell Matter hubs, so they’ll gladly control your third-party Matter accessories.


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