Belkin pauses Matter support in smart home devices

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Belkin’s smart home company Wemo is halting the development of devices with Matter to rethink its strategy.

Wemo makes various smart home accessories such as smart plugs, doorbells, and switches, but has decided to pause its Matter products. The company wants to first discover how to make its products stand out from competitors.

“Matter will have a significantly positive impact on the smart home industry,” Jen Wei, Vice President of Global Communications and Corporate Development at Belkin, told The Verge. Wei continued by saying the company plans to “take a big step back, regroup, and rethink” its approach to the smart home.

While Wemo has products that use Thread, a wireless protocol that works with Matter for local control of smart home devices, they likely won’t receive support for Matter, at least for now.

Matter is a standard backed by Apple and other companies that can improve the integration between smart home devices. It works alongside protocols such as HomeKit to let devices from different companies work together.

It removes some exclusivity in the smart home market since people aren’t locked into one company’s ecosystem. Wemo might be looking for ways to introduce features that help it stay competitive and differentiate itself.

But the company may reintroduce Matter into its products in the future. The protocol isn’t going away, and potential customers might see the lack of Matter support as a reason to choose smart home devices from other companies.