Google’s Nest and Home devices have joined the Matter smart home party

(Image credit: Google)

published 16 December 2022

Matter, the new standard to help smart home devices talk to one another, is gathering serious momentum – and Google is the latest manufacturer to deliver upgrades to existing devices to make them Matter compatible.

Google has announced that as of now, a whole bunch of Google and Nest devices are Matter compatible: the Google Home, Nest Hub (both generations), Nest Hub Max, Google Home and Google Home Mini, Nest Mini, Nest Audio and Nest WiFi Pro.

You don't need to do anything. The updates are all automatic.

Everybody thinks Matter matters

Google isn't the only big tech name to climb on board the Matter bus. Apple's there too, with Matter in the latest software update for its HomePods and HomePods mini as well as a Matter hub in the 128GB version of the new Apple TV 4K. Samsung has thrown its considerable weight behind the standard too: it was one of the first firms with Matter certification. And Amazon is bringing Matter to almost 20 devices in the next few weeks.

So far all these Matter upgrades have been preparatory: actual Matter smart home devices are still thin on the ground because it's a brand new standard. But as they start to appear in 2023, it's clear that the promised support from all the major manufacturers is already waiting for them. And that means our smart homes are going to get even smarter in the year to come.

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Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).