Google Update Adds Matter Smart Home Control to Several Nest Devices

Matter comes to Android and Google Nest devices to make setting up and adjusting your smart home faster and easier.

A new Google update is adding Matter protocol functionality to your smart home setup—if you use Google Nest devices—making it simpler to manage multiple connected items. This extends to Fast Pair on Android devices as well, which is intended to make connecting new smart devices about as simple as connecting earbuds or headphones.

The purpose of the Matter protocol is to provide a more generalized, universal smart home setup that allows the same experience across all of your devices regardless of the manufacturer.

Through Matter you can control everything from your lighting and heating to locks and alarms (provided it's all Matter compatible, of course) from one device. And now that control device can be your Google Home Mini, Google Home speaker, Nest Audio, Nest Hub (Gen. One and Two), Nest Hub Max, Nest Mini, or Nest Wi-Fi Pro.

You aren't limited to connecting all your devices to your (now Matter-enabled) hub via Wi-Fi, either. The update also adds Thread network compatibility to the 2nd Gen. Nest Hub, Nest Hub Max, and Nest Wi-Fi Pro—using less power than Wi-Fi while allowing up to 250 device connections. Though the devices themselves also have to be able to connect via Thread for this feature to be of much use.

This Matter functionality is being added to all compatible Android and Google Nest devices starting today via an automatic update. Additional Matter devices will sport a Matter badge on their packaging when you see them on store shelves.