A Matter Devices and Services section appeared in Google Account settings
Matter is the next smart home standard that wants to bridge the gap between all the disparate systems currently available. With Matter, you’ll be able to control your Apple HomeKit devices using one of your excellent Google Assistant smart displays, and vice versa. Most of the affected companies are on board with Matter, and everyone is gearing up to launch support by the end of 2022. It looks like Google is pretty far into testing already, as Matter devices and services section appeared on Google account settings for some.
The new parameter appears in the Devices and sharing in Google account settings, accessible through system settings or by tapping your Google profile icon in the top right of many Google apps. In it, you have a few options to natively integrate Matter devices. You can pair a new device from the settings pane, and it looks like by default you’ll be notified when unpaired Matter devices are nearby. There is also a section for linked Matter devices, although for our tipster who sent the screenshot, it was still empty – no device was connected.
Esper.io’s Android expert, Mishaal Rahman, told us that it’s interesting that these settings popped up out of the blue for our tipster. He shared that the Matter API is currently still in closed beta in Play Services and you usually have to manually enable these settings before they appear to you. This could indicate that Google is finally gearing up to launch Matter.
For what it’s worth, we haven’t been able to replicate the Matter Devices and Services section on our devices yet. Google may be slowly rolling out the interface via a server-side update, though it’s also possible the section appeared early for our crash tipster.
Google is expected to release full support for Matter in the fall of 2022, so we probably won’t have to wait too long until this new section rolls out to everyone. A few companies have already showcased their new Matter-supported devices at IFA 2022, so it looks like we’re really on the verge of finally getting the new standard.
Thank you: Anthony