How To

How to Use Apple Home Adaptive Lighting With Your Matter Lights

While the transition to Matter for Apple HomeKit users was pretty seamless, the omission of one major feature—Adaptive Lighting—left some smart home fans in the dark. Thankfully, that changes with the release of iOS 18. Apple is finally bringing Adaptive Lighting to Matter devices with its latest operating system, so users both new and old can put their home's lighting on auto-pilot.

Christopher Close Thursday, August 29, 2024

How to Set up a Matter Smart Plug

One of the best ways to get started with smart home tech is to employ a smart plug. These internet-connected devices have a simple task – to switch on and off, thereby powering up or powering off any connected device. And just as smart plugs have been the ideal intro to smart home tech in the past, they’re also perfect to help you get to grips with Matter.

Christian Cawley Friday, August 16, 2024

How to use Matter Multi-Admin to share your devices across ecosystems

While Matter brings enhanced security, reliability, and a streamlined pairing process to the smart home world, the real star of the show is interoperability through its Multi-Admin feature. But how exactly do you use Multi-Admin with your devices? We'll walk you step-by-step through the process.

Christopher Close Monday, August 5, 2024

How to Set Your Preferred Apple Home Hub

If you have multiple HomePods or Apple TVs in your smart home, you may notice that the Home app doesn't always pick the most centrally located or the most powerful home hub. This can lead to slower response times and disconnections, and it may even break Matter device automation. To better optimize your smart home, you'll need to know how to set your preferred Apple Home hub.

Christopher Close Wednesday, July 10, 2024

How to set up a smart device home with Matter

One of Matter's big selling points is its simplicity. But there are still some things to remember when setting it up for the first time.

Mark O'Neill Monday, July 8, 2024

How to Update Matter Devices in the Apple Home app

Staying on top of the latest firmware updates is crucial for securing your Matter devices and ensuring your smart home runs smoothly. However, navigating through various vendor apps for each of your devices can make tracking down updates rather tedious.Thankfully, some Matter platforms—like the Apple Home app—can help by offering firmware updates directly to compatible devices.

Christopher Close Thursday, July 4, 2024

Apple Puts Swift on Cheap ESP32 Boards—And Shows How to Make DIY Matter Accessories

Now you can make a DIY Matter accessory... in Swift!

James Bruce Thursday, June 20, 2024

How to Add a Matter Device to the Amazon Alexa app

Matter, the smart home standard that aims to unify the connected home is here, and with it comes significant changes—especially for Amazon Alexa users. Now, instead of trying to figure out whether a device integrates directly with Alexa or through a Skill, you'll only need to scan a QR code to set up compatible hardware.

Christopher Close Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Can I Customize Any Device to Work with Matter?

Don't want to buy all-new devices just so they work with Matter? Don't worry, there's a few ways to retrofit old appliances.

James Bruce Friday, May 10, 2024