Google I/O (May 11 & 12, 2022)

2 Likes

But will it Matter? :wink:

1 Like

This is an interesting quote from the Verge’s Matter interview with Google

Some of the developers are a little bit “wait and see” because they’re worried about getting commoditized in the market. What Google is going to be offering to these developers — and I talked about this in the Smart Home Developer Summit, we’ll have more on it coming up at I/O — is the ability to work with us to build automations on our platform, which will enable them to differentiate.

So what new automations are coming during I/O? :thinking:

1 Like

I’m still listening to some sessions. So far a couple things I found interesting:

  1. Google is opening up its Thread APIs so that their Thread enabled devices can join/share other Thread networks and so any Thread device form any company can join this Thread network
  2. Google and SmartThings are partnering on “seamless Matter multi-admin sharing”. Not really sure what this means, but it’s mentioned in this video starting at the 12:40 mark
    What's new in Google Home - YouTube
1 Like

“See less” or “seamless”?

Typing that word isn’t very seamless :grin:

1 Like

Michele Turner, a senior engineer n Google’s Smart Home project, has talked about this before:

This is super complex. Partners have to make sure that the multi-admin is working accurately [a key feature of Matter that allows devices to work with any platform simultaneously], that they’re not only working with just the Google Nest controller devices but with the Amazon controller devices, the Apple controller devices, the Samsung controller devices. The complexity of this is very high.

I’m not quite sure why Google thinks this is so complex… Apple has been doing this for HomeKit with Amazon for Alexa for two years. That is, the same device can show up simultaneously in both apps. If the manufacturer has built it that way, as, for example, Meross and Philips hue have. But I think it’s newer for Google.

I don’t understand why it’s only with SmartThings. Matter multi-admin is universal to any matter controller, whether it’s Google, Apple, Samsung, etc. So what in this “partnership” is different that it specifically calls out SmartThings?

1 Like

One more interesting tidbit. It looks like Google is opening up its home-away status to third parties via Matter.

3 Likes

I hope they fix it before they do, it is laughable at the moment.

Maybe a Beta before Matter is fully released? Since the two already have a joint project integration. But I don’t know.

1 Like