Prepare your smart home for Matter

Matter is the industry standard for smart homes designed to eliminate compatibility issues, simplify device setup and connectivity, and increase security and reliability.

Benefits of Matter for your smart home

Improved setup: Quick and consistent setup flow for all your Matter-enabled smart home devices.
Increased compatibility: All Matter-enabled devices work with one another and with Google Home.
Increased responsiveness and reliability: Matter-enabled devices carry out your commands over your existing home network versus communicating over the internet.
Cross-platform control: Matter-enabled devices can be simultaneously controlled in multiple Matter-certified smart home apps like Google Home, Apple Homekit, Amazon Alexa, and more.

How Matter-enabled devices work

Before the Matter standard, smart home devices used the home Wi-Fi network to connect to the internet and carry out commands, like turning on a light bulb. However, from time to time, devices may not have always worked as quickly as expected, or sometimes failed to complete a command altogether. To improve this experience, Matter-enabled devices work locally over your existing home wireless network without the need to connect to the cloud over the internet.

For example, if you haven’t set up your home for Matter, a request to your Nest Mini to turn on a compatible “Works with Google Home” smart light would traditionally be sent over the internet to Nest cloud services. The request is then relayed to your light manufacturer’s partner cloud and is sent back over the internet again to your home to turn your light on.

However, with Matter-enabled smart home devices, the command is sent directly over your home wireless network to the smart light. This removes the need to route the command to the Nest cloud or to the device manufacturer cloud which completes the action faster and more securely.

Start with a hub for Google Home

Before you can add Matter-enabled devices to Google Home, you need a Matter-enabled hub device set up on your home wireless network to:

Add Matter-enabled devices to your smart home
Control your Matter-enabled devices locally instead of over the cloud on the internet
Control your smart devices remotely when you’re away from home

There are several types of devices that can work as a hub for Google Home.

Choose the type of hub for Google Home you need

To learn which type of hub for Google Home better suits your home, you need to understand how Matter-enabled devices communicate. Matter-enabled devices can carry out their commands by communicating over your existing home wireless network via Wi-Fi, or Thread.

Thread is the latest connectivity technology for the smart home. It’s similar to Wi-Fi but specifically built to help smart devices carry out their commands faster, and from further away than ever before. There are many benefits to smart home owners if they choose Matter-enabled devices that communicate over Thread:

Better speed: Smart devices that use Thread communicate faster than devices that use Wi-Fi.
Better reliability: With each Thread device that is added to your home, a strong mesh network is created that extends throughout your home. If one device goes down, the network smartly reroutes signals through a different device in the network, to ensure your smart home still runs smoothly.
Better range: The mesh structure means you can extend the network to cover your entire home, even the spots that Wi-Fi struggles to reach.
Better energy efficiency: Your battery-powered Thread smart devices last longer than battery-powered devices that communicate via Wi-Fi.

There are other benefits for using Matter-enabled devices that communicate using Thread in Google Home. Learn how Google products use Thread.

Devices that work as a hub for Google Home

Hubs for Google Home (Wi-Fi only)

If the Matter-enabled smart devices in your home only use Wi-Fi to communicate, the hub devices below support Matter over Wi-Fi:

Speakers: Google Home, Google Home Mini, Nest Mini, Nest Audio
Displays: Nest Hub (1st gen), Nest Hub (2nd gen), Nest Hub Max
Wi-Fi routers: Nest Wifi Pro (Wi-Fi 6E)
Streamers: Google TV Streamer (4K)

Hubs for Google Home (Wi-Fi and Thread)

If the Matter-enabled smart devices in your home use a mix of Thread and Wi-Fi to communicate over your home wireless network, you need a hub device that also works as a Thread border router. A Thread border router is a device that works as a special hub to connect all of your Thread devices together by creating a wireless Thread network.

Many of the hubs for Google Home have a Thread border router built-in to avoid the need for an additional hub device. The following hubs support Matter over both Wi-Fi and Thread:

Displays: Nest Hub (2nd gen), Nest Hub Max
Wi-Fi routers: Nest Wifi Pro (Wi-Fi 6E)
Streamers: Google TV Streamer (4K)

Set up a device to work as a hub for Google Home

For Google devices that work as a hub for Google Home, no special setup is required. You just need to connect the hub device on your existing home Wi-Fi network or Thread network of smart devices. Once set up is done, add the hub device to Google Home via the Google Home app. Your hub device then automatically receives the latest updates and acts as a hub for Google Home.

Ensure IPv6 is enabled on your home wireless network

Before you attempt to add Matter-enabled devices to your smart home, IPv6 must be enabled on your home wireless network to:

Allow Matter to work properly over both Wi-Fi
Ensure proper communication and hand-off between Matter-enabled devices that use Thread

Some Matter devices still work with IPv4. However, they require IPv6 connectivity to establish communication with all Matter-certified smart home apps and devices.

Note: Without IPv6 enabled on your home wireless network, the setup process may initially appear to succeed at times. However, control and other functionalities eventually fail due to the lack of IPv6 support that’s required for the Matter technology to work properly.

Why IPv6 is required for Matter:

Enhanced Security: IPv6 provides more secure communication for Matter-enabled devices with its built-in security features that provide authentication and encryption for network traffic.
Simplified Network Management: IPv6 reduces the complexity of network management in smart homes with its auto-configuration capabilities to streamline the process of assigning unique addresses to your smart devices.
Helps to bridge Thread and Wi-Fi Networks: IPv6 (on the Wi-Fi network) enables seamless communication between Matter-enabled Thread and Wi-Fi devices in smart homes with both Thread and Wi-Fi networks.
Future-proofing: IPv4 is depreciated over time due to the limitation of the number of network addresses it can handle. Matter on IPv6 ensures its longevity, compatibility, and adaptability to changes in the network landscape.

Note: Check your network router’s manual or contact your internet service provider to find if your home network supports IPv6. To learn more about the specifics on your Google Wifi, refer to IPv6.

How to choose compatible devices for Google Home and Matter

Google Home allows you to choose from over 80,000 compatible Works with Google Home devices from your favorite brands. Check for the Works with Google Home compatibility logo:

As new smart home technologies are introduced, Google Home helps to make sure that your existing and new smart home devices, like Matter-enabled devices, work together. All Matter-enabled end-devices work with each other, and with Google Home.

Note: Matter supports more smart home device types over time with new updates. All Matter-certified smart home platforms and apps update to support different Matter-enabled device types and categories at different times. To learn which Matter-enabled device types Google Home currently supports, refer to Supported device types.

When you choose smart devices to add to Google Home, look for the Matter compatibility logo on the device packaging or website to know if that device supports Matter:

When you choose smart devices to add to Google Home, check for the following connectivity protocol logos on the device packaging or website to know if that device communicates over your home network using Wi-Fi or Thread:

How to add and connect Matter-enabled devices to Google Home

Once you have ensured you have a device that works as a hub for Google Home set up and works in your smart home, you can set up, manage, and control Matter-enabled devices with Google Home to organize and control all of your home devices with just one app.

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