Updated Matter 1.3 Standard Brings Energy Monitoring, Electric Vehicle Charging Support, and More
Latest version of the cross-vendor smart device standard offers a wealth of improvements — and can even help you cook, too.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) has announced 2024's first new version of the Matter standard for cross-vendor Internet of Things (IoT) support, Matter 1.3 — which includes support for new device types including electric vehicle chargers and energy reporting functionality.
"This latest release marks an important step forward, enabling devices that can be more helpful to users in the kitchen and laundry room, enhance entertainment and smart home interaction on screens, and make the smart home more efficient and safer with new energy and water management support," the CSA claims of Matter 1.3. "The addition of these new device types and functionalities in Matter 1.3 enables product manufacturers and controllers to begin implementing and certifying these features into new and existing products."
In Matter 1.3, devices can report actual and estimated measurements for instantaneous power draw, voltage, current, and more in real-time, while also tracking and communicating energy usage — or, in the case of devices like solar inverters, generation — over time. At the same time, the CSA has added support for electric vehicle charging points to the standard — including controls for stopping and starting charging, adjusting the charging rate, or setting a range target to be reached by a given time.
Today's updated release also brings with it support for a new class of "water management" devices, including leak and freeze detectors, rain sensors, and controllable water valves, along with traditional and microwave ovens, cooktops, extractor hoods, and expanded support for laundry dryers. There's enhanced support for TV streaming devices, support for cross-vendor "scene" configuration, and command batching — designed, the CSA says, to minimize the "popcorn effect" when controlling a smart lighting system with multiple bulbs.
The new revision of the Matter standard comes around seven months after the CSA launched Matter 1.2, which added nine new device types to the ecosystem: refrigerators, room air conditioners, dishwashers, laundry washers, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, air quality sensors, air purifiers, fans, and robotic vacuums and mops. That update also included improvements for door locks and changes to make it quicker to bring Matter-certified devices to market.
Interested parties can request a copy of the new Matter 1.3 standard on the CSA website, while the Matter 1.3 software development kit (SDK) has been published to GitHub — though, at the time of writing, the last official release was v1.2.0.1 from October last year.