Your smart home is now more connected and secure than before, thanks to Matter 1.4.2 update

Ahead of Matter 1.5 which is expected to release later this year, there’s a new Matter 1.4.2 update, designed to make your smart home more connected and secure. The update includes Wi-Fi communication, better security verification and streamlined reporting – features that you might not notice at the get go but will certainly appreciate down the line.

Starting with Wi-Fi, new Matter devices can now be set up using Wi-Fi only. Bluetooth used to be the mandatory way to onboard your devices, but you can now do so with Wi-Fi.

This upgrade opens up more opportunities for users and manufacturers, as older Wi-Fi only products can support Matter with a simple software upgrade, while brands can make cheaper gadgets without the need for Bluetooth.

The new Matter 1.4.2 update has also got some major advancements in security, including Access Restriction Lists, Vendor ID verification and Certificate Revocation Lists. If that just sounds like a lot of words, don’t worry – I’ll break it down for you.

Access Restriction means you can now restrict access to settings on routers and other network devices, so only verified users or controllers can make changes. Vendor ID verification ensures that only correct vendors are admins on your devices.

Those two security measures coupled together helps keep everything safe and secure so hackers can’t access or tweak your devices in your smart home. Certificate Revocation also prevents you from accidentally adding fraudulent or dodgy devices to your ecosystem as Matter immediately flags and blocks them.

If you have a robot vacuum cleaner, you’ll also benefit from the Matter 1.4.2 update, as it’s improved how your robot vac responds to commands. For example, rather than having to manually tell your vacuum to cancel a task before starting a new one, you can tell it to start a job and it’ll know to stop the one it’s currently on.

Similarly with scene automation, the Matter 1.4.2 update better supports timed schedules or actions, like when you want your smart lights to come on, and does so quickly and even if your internet connection is down. Device reporting has also been updated, so you won’t get as many unnecessary notifications which can help improve your devices’ battery life.

All things considered, the Matter 1.4.2 update has vastly improved key areas of your smart home that you might not have realised you needed. It’s a welcome addition ahead of the upcoming Matter 1.5 release and could be a sign that Matter is getting simpler features out of the way to make way for something bigger – but we’ll have to wait and see.