German smart-home company Eve Systems has added Matter to three of its Thread-enabled smart home products.

The latest models of the Eve Energy smart plug for USA, Canada, Europe, UK and Australia, the Eve Door & Window contact sensor, and the Eve Motion sensor have completed Matter certification.

Starting this week, iPhone users can upgrade those devices for free in the Eve app to grant every family member local and direct access from their preferred smartphone or voice assistant.

The entire line of now 14 Thread-enabled Eve devices will receive free Matter firmware updates over time. Availability of Matter-certified Eve products in retail will start early next year. The Eve app, which has been available exclusively for iOS, will be complemented by a sister version for Android in the same period.

Matter, the smart home protocol developed by platform providers and device manufacturers to enhance interoperability, was launched by the Connectivity Standards Alliance. A first-mover on Thread and an early member of the Matter programme, Eve participated in the testing and validation of the Matter specification that was released in October. 

“The next era of the smart home is here, and we can now invite users across all major ecosystems to the Eve experience,” said Jerome Gackel, CEO of Eve Systems. “No matter what phone or assistant you are controlling your Eve product from, it will always deliver 100% privacy, a superior set of software features, and unparalleled ease of installation.”

Karen Yao, director of product management for Google Home, added: “Eve is a great example of how smart home device makers can build helpful, innovative Matter devices, that deliver great out-of-box experiences with Android Fast Pair, and Google Home. As one of our earliest partners, Eve has been instrumental in helping us ensure all the tools in the Google Home developer centre can help developers deliver those seamless user experiences.”

Jointly developed by Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung and other manufacturers, Matter aims to eliminate incompatibilities in the smart home. Matter doesn’t mind if you use an iPhone, Android device, Alexa-enabled smart speaker, Google Assistant, or Siri.

Thread technology was developed to improve connectivity between smart-home products. The big difference with this technology is that Thread creates a mesh network. Within this, lights, thermostats, outlets, sensors and more can also talk to each other free of the constraint of having to go through a central hub, such as a bridge. That’s because a Thread network doesn’t need one. If a single device fails, the data packets are simply relayed to the next in the mesh.