Popular smart light maker Nanoleaf has today become the first company to unveil its new smart home products powered by an exciting new standard in connectivity, Matter.
The company, which already boasts some of the best HomeKit light bulbs you can buy, has today unveiled four new smart Bulbs & Lightstrips sporting the standard, which is backed by smart home heavyweights including Apple, Amazon, and Google.
In a sentence, Matter is a new global smart home connectivity standard that will bridge the gap between previously alienated smart home operating systems and services like HomeKit, Amazon's Alexa, and Google Assistant, allowing different products and accessories to communicate with each other in a way that hasn't been previously possible.
Nanoleaf x Matter
The new RGBW products coming to Nanoleaf's essentials line range in price from $19.99 - $99.99. Details are scarce with a release coming in "early 2023".
However, we know we can expect both Smart Bulbs and Lightstrips (as pictured) with more than 16 million colors and a wide range of color temperatures. There are three new bulbs, the A19, GU10, BR30, and one Lightstrip. Like all of Nanoleaf's excellent products such as Nanoleaf Elements, they'll be controllable and customizable from the Nanoleaf app, which you can use to coordinate a range of their accessories.
As Matter begins to take shape, you'll also be able to use these accessories in a dynamic smart home setup powered by Apple and Siri, or Alexa, or Google, with interoperability options with other products like motion sensors and smart plugs undoubtedly on the horizon.
Matter is the biggest thing to happen to the smart home since the smart home concept took shape. Nanoleaf says it will unveil "a number" of new Matter-compatible products at CES 2023.
Matter is particularly noteworthy and unique thanks to the inclusion of Apple amongst the cohort of companies planning to support the standard. Apple, famously indifferent or arguably even hostile to interoperability with its rivals on devices like the iPhone or services like the App Store, has taken the plunge to open up a whole world of possibilities in the smart home. Apple's support for Matter means that the future of the smart home for Apple customers is no longer a HomeKit-exclusive experience, but rather a wide-open field of possibility. It means customers will be able to choose smart home products exclusively based on features and functionality, without having to consider whether they are supported by a particular ecosystem or voice assistant like HomeKit or Siri.
