Amazon
Smart home devices are less talked about in the press than they were five years ago because smart home devices are no longer a novelty but part of the home fabric. Smart home penetration in the West could soon reach 50%.
Amazon showcased ambient smart home technology in the Amazon Experience area at CES 2023. Announced the release of the first of his three features for the Alexa Ambient Home Dev Kit (AAHDK): credential sharing, group sync, and two-way device sync. Developer preview of the month. Announced at the event (and discussed in my podcast at the time), AAHDK is a development kit for integrating services and APIs within Amazon’s Alexa ecosystem.
AAHDK also follows Amazon’s recent adoption of the Matter industry standard for smart homes. As explained in a Moor Insights & Strategy research paper on how Matter makes smart homes smarter, Matter is a smart home technology that enables smart home devices to communicate using networks already available in most homes. is the universal “language” of Amazon says it has completed the first phase of rolling out Matter to its smart home devices. Let’s take a look at why Amazon’s support for Matter is so important to the smart home space.
Matter is a fairly new standard, but Amazon has been growing its ecosystem of smart home devices for years. To give an overview of Amazon’s mature Alexa ecosystem, the company is already bringing Matter support to his over 100 million Echo devices in customers’ homes. Similar to its e-commerce business, Amazon’s strategy is to build an ecosystem of Internet of Things (IoT) devices for the home where developers and customers can build their own products on the Alexa platform. These new he AAHDK features allow home device developers to do just that.
While being able to easily work with Matter-enabled devices is good for the Amazon smart home ecosystem as a whole, it’s also important that the influx of Matter devices doesn’t dilute existing Amazon technology. Recall that Amazon has its own Alexa devices such as the Ring and Echo, and the Alexa ecosystem with developers and partner devices. It’s important that the Amazon Alexa ecosystem connects with Matter-enabled devices while maintaining the integrity, security, and simplicity of the Alexa ecosystem itself.
Sharing credentials within the AAHDK makes it easier to share Thread credentials between Alexa and developer apps, making it easier to set up Matter on devices using the Thread IoT network protocol. Customers who choose to share credentials do not need to manually enter thread credentials when setting up new Matter devices. Amazon says it also helps customers maintain a single-threaded network in their homes, giving them a wider and more reliable experience. I can’t tell you how many times I couldn’t turn off the lights because I was on another of his Wi-Fi bands when I was in another room on another smart home platform. Credential sharing not only integrates, but also from a security perspective, it makes it easier to maintain a secure Thread network between Alexa and developer apps.
According to Amazon, the new Group Sync feature will allow customers to easily set up and manage their smart homes without manually duplicating groups across multiple apps.Group Sync also adds simplicity to the Alexa smart home ecosystem. For example, if you have an app that can turn on the lights in a room or change the color each time an alarm goes off, group A sync feature allows the app to identify the correct lights throughout your home. Similarly, two-way device synchronization allows services and customers to maintain their smart home ecosystem by synchronizing critical device information. These new sync features should provide a more seamless experience for Matter over Thread devices and provide an additional layer of control and maintenance for the Alexa ecosystem.
summary
Amazon focuses on the Alexa ecosystem to create ambient experiences. This environment will help create a smart home ecosystem that “just works”. Matter device support also opens the smart home to new levels of interoperability, putting Amazon in a gatekeeper mindset. Yes, Amazon is all in on Matter, but thanks to AAHDK, Amazon now gets the cake. When I eat it too.
I doubt Amazon sees Matter the same way Google, Samsung and Apple do. I think these companies are bringing their devices to the Matter standard, but Amazon, on the contrary, allows Matter-enabled devices to be incorporated into the ecosystem. While these perspectives may sound similar, the difference is that Amazon’s approach is to build an ecosystem of his IoT devices for the home where developers and customers can build products that work with the Alexa platform. support the strategy to The difference is that it’s still on the Amazon Alexa platform, but with Matter-enabled devices, the reach is even greater.
Note: Jacob Freyman of Moor Insights & Strategy co-op contributed to this article.
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