Amazon to update Matter Casting to 1.4 spec

Amazon is expected to roll out support for the Matter 1.4 specification to its Matter Casting-compatible app, according to recent certifications.

Amazon is a major smart home platform and streaming content provider. The company is one of the few investing in universal streaming technologies using the Matter smart home platform, allowing users to stream media content to supported Amazon devices like Echo and Fire TV.

Minor fixes

Two certifications from the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) – titled Casting Video Client for Android and Casting Video Client for iOS – suggest that Amazon’s apps will soon work on Matter 1.4, both on Android and iOS, to stream video or audio content to client receivers.

This would upgrade current support from the Matter 1.3 spec – now used by Echo and Fire TV – to the latest major version, 1.4. According to the “diff-comparison” document between the Matter 1.3 and Matter 1.4 Device Library specs, there are barely any changes in the Video Player and related casting features. So, the update is likely aimed at improving stability and overall performance rather than adding new features.

What’s supported?

According to Amazon’s developer documents, Matter Casting is supported by most Fire TVs running Fire OS 7 or newer. Matter Casting supports media and device controls such as:

• Play  
• Pause  
• Navigation  
• Skip forward/back  
• Volume control  

The user experience should be similar to Apple TV and Google TV, with apps running on both clients.

For streaming content, there should be apps on both the TV and the user’s smartphone. The two devices communicate, exchanging information for streaming. Matter also specifies features like account login via phone, remote keypad, and toggling settings on TV via related “clusters.”

Currently, Amazon is the only major ecosystem offering Matter Casting. Apple and Google both use proprietary, in-house standards – AirPlay and Chromecast – and have not announced plans for Matter support in this area. Meanwhile, a company called Legato has been working with CSA speaker makers to enable Matter-based streaming for end users. For reference, notable speaker brands such as Sonos, Bose, and Sony are CSA members. Ikea and Sonos recently ended the partnership, so the former, a heavy Matter adopter, may also bring this standard to its expanding stereo lines.

Update availability

The certifications appear to be for Amazon’s apps, so the forthcoming update should arrive via app store updates. Adoption by third-party content apps is still unclear and would require a separate certification from the alliance.

Matter Alpha has reached out to Amazon for more information on Matter Casting, but there was no response from a spokesperson as this article was drafted.

(Source: CSA, Amazon Developer Docs)