On a recent Internet of Things Podcast episode, we took a question from our Voicemail hotline from Alan about the connected devices in his vacation home. Alan has Apple HomeKit devices, as well as Samsung SmartThings, in a rental property he owns and he wants to give guests control over the smart products in it. However, he hasn’t added any smart speakers to the location. Alan asks if Matter support will let him use non-Apple smart speakers for guests that use Android phones.
Alan’s thought on Matter support is spot on. As Matter-certified products roll out, or as existing devices get upgraded to Matter through software, the brand or ecosystem of a smart speaker should become irrelevant. The idea of Matter is to allow various smart home platforms and devices to work together. So if Alan can wait a bit for this rollout, he can add whichever Matter-support smart speakers to the vacation home. Of course, the connected devices must also support Matter too.
Since Alan uses SmartThings now in addition to HomeKit, we think adding a Google Nest smart speaker now can also solve this program to a large degree. Until Matter is fully deployed, his guests won’t be able to control HomeKit products (unless they also support Google Home) but they can control any Smart Things devices.
We also like this idea for another reason: Google Home has a more effective and simpler “guest mode” compared with speakers on other platforms.
This mode keeps private data between the homeowner and guests separately, for example. Guests can enable the Voice Match function which will send device activity to their own Google account. In this mode, personal results from the homeowner won’t be accessible. So guests won’t be able to view your calendar or other information. Google says that while in guest mode, people can still play media, control smart home devices, and get local info, like the weather. All of the details on the guest mode are available in this Google support document.
To hear Alan’s question in full, as well as our discussion on the topic, tune in to the Internet of Things Podcast below:
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