A Matter devices & services section has popped up in the Google account settings
Matter is the upcoming smart home standard that wants to bridge the gap between all the disparate systems currently out there. With Matter, you will be able to control your Apple HomeKit devices using any of your great Google Assistant smart displays, and vice versa. Most of the relevant companies are on board with Matter, and everyone is gearing up to launch support by the end of 2022. It looks like Google is already pretty far along in testing, as a Matter devices & services section has appeared on the Google account settings for some.
The new setting appears as part of the Devices & sharing section in the Google account settings, which can be accessed via system settings or by tapping your Google profile icon in the top right in many Google apps. In it, you have a few options to natively integrate with Matter devices. You can connect a new device from the settings pane, and it appears that by default, you will be notified when unpaired Matter devices are nearby. There is also a section for linked Matter devices, though for our tipster who sent in the screenshot, it’s still empty — no devices were connected.
Esper.io’s Android expert Mishaal Rahman explained to us that it’s interesting that these settings have seemingly just appeared out of the blue for our tipster. He shared that the Matter API is currently still in a closed beta in the Play Services, and that you usually need to manually enable these settings before they appear to you. This could indicate that Google is indeed finally getting ready to launch Matter.
For what it’s worth, we haven’t been able to replicate the Matter devices & services section on our devices just yet. Google could be rolling out the interface via a server-side update slowly, though it’s also possible that the section appeared early for our tipster on accident.
Google is slated to release full support for Matter in fall 2022, so we probably won’t have to wait too long until this new section rolls out for everyone. A few companies have already shown off their new Matter-supported devices during IFA 2022, so it looks like we’re really on the verge of finally getting the new standard.
Thanks: Anthony
