Homekit supports the matter protocol. What does this imply?

HomeKit Support matter agreement , What will it mean ？ It has revolutionary significance ？ in fact , The reason why smart home devices from different manufacturers are not compatible is that they use different communication protocols , Include WiFi、 bluetooth 、ZigBee、Z-wave These agreements , Now it can be said that many heroes stand side by side .

Maybe it's because iOS Unprecedented ecological success , A long time ago , Manufacturers who are interested in making a difference in the smart home industry , At the same time, they are trying to build their own ecology . But in the multi category market of smart home , A company wants to achieve full coverage of user needs on its own 、 Create a strong Ecology , Almost impossible task .

Face this reality ,matter Agreement came into being . So-called matter, It's the connecting standards alliance （CSA） The forerunner of Zigbee union , stay 2019 United Amazon in 、 Google 、 Made by apple , And in 2021 It was officially unveiled in the spring of . and matter Based on IP Standardized connection protocol , It is over Ethernet 、Wi-Fi、 Bluetooth and Thread And other technologies .

matter The agreement can be regarded as a unified standard , It can realize cross system 、 Cross platform connectivity 、 control 、 Data sharing , This extremely strong compatibility also allows different types 、 equipment 、 brand 、 Ecological equipment room , It can realize efficient interconnection .matter The effect , It will break the current situation that smart home brands only support their own agreements .

For Apple ,matter The agreement will undoubtedly be HomeKit To catch up with Amazon and Google smart home ecosystem “ shortcut ”. As early as 2014 Year of WWDC On , Apple announced the smart home control center HomeKit, And promise to bring Siri To the interconnection of home devices . At that time, other manufacturers were still trying to occupy the market with self-developed hardware , Apple launched HomeKit As a smart home platform , Seems more forward-looking .

Now compared to Amazon's Echo、 Google's Google Home, Even Xiaomi's mi family 、 Huawei's Hongmeng Zhilian , Apple HomeKit Ecology can only be used “ faltering ” To describe . Although this has something to do with Apple's late development in smart home Ecology , Even though HomeKit stay 2014 It was released in , But it was not until the 2015 The first batch of hardware products was introduced in , here we are 2016 year iOS 10 It's only in Home application , For unified management support HomeKit The equipment , It wasn't until last fall that Apple's official website appeared “ family ” This second level column .

Need to know , Different from mobile phones and tablets , Smart home is an all inclusive ecosystem , It is not just a few devices that can create a full scene smart home with all things connected . If consumers want to buy A Smart lights at home 、B Smart door lock at home 、C Gateway to home 、D Smart camera at home , Then you often need to download ABCD Corresponding to APP, Such an experience is obviously beyond words .

In a word , Namely HomeKit The result of insufficient equipment , That is, consumers dare not take it as the core to create their own smart home environment , The reason why Xiaomi's mi family was successful , By supporting thousands of devices . But in addition to Apple's strict requirements, there are not many partners ,HomeKit Slow development and Apple's top-level design for this smart home platform , There is also a close relationship .

Simply speaking , Compared with the smart home ecology of other manufacturers ,HomeKit The experience is not outstanding , But it's more expensive to build 、 And there are fewer devices available . therefore HomeKit Support matter The meaning of the agreement , It's not HomeKit The smart home products of the cooperative manufacturers only need to follow matter agreement , You can use Apple's “ family ”APP Control , This is equivalent to its effortless expansion HomeKit Our product lineup .

Precisely because matter Under the agreement , Zhiting technology also adheres to this “ Realize cross brand and cross category ” The concept of unified control and management of various intelligent devices from different manufacturers , Launched a fully open source “ Zhiting intelligent Ecology ” The ecological system , Open source agreement combining the software characteristics of domestic smart home manufacturers （Apache License, Version 2.0） Software for .

matter The agreement not only makes the product compatibility among major manufacturers reach the extreme value without doubt . In particular, privacy and security are the two features that Apple has always adhered to , by HomeKit Endowed with their own characteristics , This makes HomeKit Different from other smart home platforms .

HomeKit And matter compatible , It means that Apple will continue to maintain a strong influence on the film makers .