Here’s why and how you should spring clean your smart home ecosystem this year.
The Matter standard is the talk of the smart home world right now, and no, I’m not talking about that one that occupies and has mass. I’m referring to the new open-source smart home protocol launched in late 2022 designed to ensure that all smart home devices, no matter the type, brand, or ecosystem, can seamlessly connect and talk with one another.
With the Matter protocol, your smart home ecosystem should be a lot cleaner and easier to navigate than ever. Even better news is that there are now a handful of smart home devices that support Matter, including some of the best smart speakers. And, many more are slated to join the list this year.
Before you jump on the Matter bandwagon, however, it might be a good idea to scrub your existing smart home ecosystem (or, if you’re a bit all over the place like I am, ecosystems) spotless. After all, one of the benefits of the protocol is to have a cleaner, neater, and more coherent setup. And, you should start your dream Matter-dominated setup as such.
Spring cleaning your smart home ecosystem is a good idea in general, especially if you’ve invested in one of the best smart lights and it keeps acting up, or if the device list on your smart home app looks like a tech warehouse blew up on it.
The latter is particularly likely if you’re using Amazon Alexa as your main ecosystem; the Alexa app has a nasty habit of adding “new devices” even if you’ve already added them before and are only re-establishing a lost connection or have changed their names on their respective proprietary apps.
Other reasons to spring clean are if some devices are no longer connected properly with your smart home assistant, you’ve recently changed your network, or old devices are no longer supported or available.
In my case, for example, some of my older routines still have commands to turn on/off non-smart home appliances and devices that are no longer plugged in to the smart plugs or power strips those commands were assigned to. As a result, I wake up every day to Alexa turning on a bunch of things that I have long since retired or given away. It’s really very annoying, especially if I want to sleep in.
Fortunately, whatever your motivations, going through the process is relatively painless – and a lot less tiring than actual spring cleaning your home.
