Sonos has quietly joined the Connectivity Standards Alliance, who are the coalition responsible for developing the smart home standard,Matter.
Matter is a wireless interoperability protocol that has been in the works since 2019 and it already includes companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung andZigbee.
The goal of Matter is to become an interoperability protocol with standard data models that ensure smart home devices can work across different ecosystems, like a Nest doorbell working as seamlessly with anAmazon Echo Showas aRing doorbellwould, for example.
While Sonos hasn’t yet committed to adopting the Matter standard, the news that it has eyes on it is good for smart home and Sonos fans hoping that theirSonos speakerswill eventually work seamlessly with other smart home devices they have in their home.
Sonos has always been good at supporting various technologies, with its smart speakers offering bothGoogle AssistantandAmazon Alexavoice assistants, whilst also supportingApple AirPlay 2, for example, so it isn’t surprising it has its eye on Matter.
Sonos spokesperson Joani Brinktold The Verge: “Sonos has always been focused on giving customers choice. As an open platform with a wide range of partners, Sonos is committed to making sure our products integrate seamlessly with other smart home products.
“Our membership in the Connectivity Standards Alliance allows us to learn about emerging standards and also evaluate whether they provide for true interoperability at the platform or operating system level, which we consider vital to consumers and competition.”
Brink added in a follow-up statement to The Verge: “Our active engagement with Matter is at an early stage and we look forward to learning and evaluating in a constructive way.”
For now, it sounds like Sonos is keeping its options open and making sure it’s ready to adopt the Matter protocol if it achieves what it is setting out to, but it isn’t fully jumping on the wagon just yet.
