I’ve been a smart home skeptic for most of my career, but Matter changed my perspective, and 2025 is the year I went all-in. Going into 2026, there are clear areas where I can say my life is better for it.
I no longer nag my family about lights
I grew up with Mom telling me stories about how upset her dad would get at others wasting electricity in the house by leaving lights on. By the time I became a parent, LED bulbs had made lights use much less electricity—still, I don’t like to see them left on. And when a house has recessed lights like mine, those energy savings are often negated by the sheer number of lights spread throughout the ceiling.
I’m the person in my household who goes behind everyone else, turning off lights. I regularly remind my wife and kids, but it does little to change their behavior. Thanks to smart lights, this is an area of friction that has been removed from our lives. Being able to open an app and see, at a glance, all of the lights left on and turn them off remotely has eliminated my annoyance, and everyone else can continue to live their life as they always have.
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I can leave the home without manually turning off everything
As I leave the home now, I feel less need to check all the rooms for lights left on. I can find out if lights are on by glancing at my watch. Nor do I need to see if all the doors are locked. I recently connected my first Matter smart locks to solve that problem. I can now turn off devices and lock doors while I'm sitting in the car or, if we’re really in a hurry, from the destination after we arrive.
I told myself I’d be the sort of parent who modeled for my kids the importance of leaving the house early, but as I’ve learned, juggling parenthood and work in 2025 is no joke, and during those many times when we're running late, I’ll take whatever help I can get.
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Having granular control over lighting has improved my well-being
I used to think of smart home lighting as a luxury. After all, what’s wrong with getting up to flip a switch, and do I really need to be able to change the color of my lights? Well, I’ve since come to see the difference it makes to have alternative ways to control lights, and the same is true of having finer control over those lights.
I work from home and also parent two young kids, so I don’t always work while the sun is up. I spend many early mornings writing before the sunrise or finishing work after the kids have gone to bed. Turning on the bright overhead lights is a non-starter for me, as such bright lights quickly give me a headache more often than not. But being able to set a lamp to 20% or 75% brightness depending on how much light I need at the moment has extended both when and where I can be and how good I feel while I’m there.
I actually like using voice assistants
Just in time for many to rave about AI chatbots, I’ve only just now come around to voice assistants. I continue to have zero interest in holding a conversation with one, but just like with setting timers or checking the weather, smart home controls are a natural fit. I often ask Samsung’s Bixby or Home Assistant’s Assist to turn off the lights, especially after I’m in bed. That’s one less potential source of tension after my wife and I realize a light is still on in the room and we’re both too tired to get up. I've even gone so far to experiment with having several Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition boxes in various rooms of the house.
Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition
I now know my home’s temperature and humidity
I bought the Honeywell Home X2S Matter-comatible smart thermostat this year, so I can now control the climate in my home regardless of where I am. But my home is a wide single-story home, and the temperature in the hallway near the thermostat doesn’t necessarily match that of our bedroom, the living room, or our home office. That’s where other Matter products come in.
I now also own a SwitchBot Meter Plus, which measures the temperature and the humidity in our bedroom. It has its own digital display, but it relays information I can check from elsewhere. Likewise, hubs placed in other rooms can do the same.
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An accurate and versatile indoor thermometer and hygrometer with real-time tracking, smart notifications, and exportable environmental data.
Looking forward to 2026
Going into 2026, there are still numerous Matter additions I have yet to explore—such as water leak detection sensors and smoke alarms. I’m particularly eager to try out IKEA’s new line of Matter products. Matter became ubiquitous among smart home devices this year, and the future for the standard is looking bright.
