GoKawiilThe Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) today announced Matter 1.6 and Product Security 1.1, introducing several improvements to new smart home setup tools, better multi-ecosystem device sharing, and more. Here are the details.
Today marks the second day of Unify, the CSA’s annual public event, where companies across the IoT industry “spotlight the power and potential of open standards” in the field.
While one significant announcement this year is the addition of ADT and Telink to the CSA’s Board of Directors, the biggest news for consumers and device makers is the launch of Matter 1.6 and Product Security 1.1.
What’s new with Matter 1.6
According to the CSA, Matter 1.6 is a focused feature release, which “enhances how devices interact across ecosystems, improves their ability to adapt to user preferences, and provides a deeper understanding of device status.”
One of the main highlights is NFC-Based Commissioning, which enables bi-directional NFC communication with Matter devices, even before they are fully powered on.
This means devices can be commissioned before installation, making it easier to set up items like ceiling fixtures and in-wall switches, as well as larger deployments that require devices to be provisioned in advance.
Here’s the CSA on NFC-Based Commissioning:
“In practice, this means a light bulb can be commissioned before it is screwed into a ceiling fixture, and an in-wall switch can be set up before mains power is on. For larger installations, multiple devices can be provisioned in advance and activated at their final locations. For end users, the experience is immediate and tactile: simply hold a phone near the device to commission it.”
The CSA says that NFC-Based Commissioning builds on Matter 1.4.1, “which embedded setup information in an NFC tag as a more convenient alternative to scanning a QR code, but still relied on Bluetooth LE to complete commissioning.” Matter 1.6, by contrast, allows the full commissioning exchange to happen over NFC.
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