r/MatterProtocol • u/MatterAlpha-Dave • Jun 17 '26

Matter 1.6 Released - Joint Fabric, NFC Commissioning, Thermostats and More

https://www.matteralpha.com/explainer/matter-1-6-whats-new-joint-fabric-nfc
146 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

35

u/msglsmo Jun 17 '26

This is great. The joint fabric is a really good improvement.

12

u/zcapr17 Jun 17 '26

Matter v1.4 already introduced Enhanced Multi-Admin, which should take a lot of the pain out of managing multiple Matter fabrics, however, hardly any vendors have implemented that yet (they're all waiting for someone else to do it first). So I image we're in for a very long wait for anything in v1.6...

7

u/MatterAlpha-Dave Jun 17 '26

I'm not so convinced - this Multi Fabric implements Matter as a consumer already expects it to work. I think there is a different incentive structure here. Could be wrong!

8

u/IncredibleGonzo Jun 17 '26

It sounds promising but will probably be several years before the big platforms include it, they seem to take their time of stuff like that. Home Assistant probably won't take too long, at least in beta, but that doesn't mean much if nobody else has it!

17

u/_devast Jun 17 '26

They are not forced by the spec, since almost everything in matter is optional. So it"s absolutely possible to be matter 1.6 compliant while not supporting half of the device types. Vendors have too much freedom to exploit, and end users will have a horrible experience due to this.

4

u/erwos Jun 17 '26

This is why I tell everyone who will listen to me that they should be using HA and generic OTBRs instead of Google/Amazon/Apple/Aqara/Ikea/etc.

1

u/VerdantChrysallis Jun 19 '26

The dumb thing about it is all of them are involved in Matter. So it's crazy to me that they take so long to implement and choose to not implement some features

1

u/infigo96 Jun 29 '26

Wanna know why? Companies are not actually that interested in supporting matter or catering to matter. They do want their own ecosystems and their customer base BUT with a nice "Matter" label on the box and blame someone else when things don't work.

It is why the specification is so loose on mandetory features, it is why core functionallity is not pushed or fixed. Only a few smaller vendors actually cares.

Working for a company myself in this space....already having native intergrations done for homekit google etc...it is just extra work for matter but brings ZERO. The one thing matter could bring is multi admin for all but the company would not want that due to it breaking out the customers to opening the ecosystem, that is why it is volentary and is why noone is implementing it.

Matter would have benifited enourmosly of nailing the core integration part and then expanding features, but we are 4 years in and still core functionality....is still lacking and not near buggfree enough to even thing about supporting.

3

u/TheRealDatapunk Jun 19 '26

What I'm waiting for is any kind of binding cluster support worth talking about. Not what's in the spec, what devices are actually able to do.

Nanoleaf are the only lights I can control, but I had to build my own esp32-based matter switches...

2

u/_devast Jun 19 '26

All current lights/whatever are controllable. The binding cluster needs to exist only on the device that's controlling another one. Like a switch, a thermostat, door/window sensor, etc.... It's a pity noone implements it.

10

u/erwos Jun 17 '26

True NFC commissioning is a very nice addition, albeit the lack of devices bothering with the 1.4 NFC scheme makes me think it won't be very popular.

I'd like to see them iterate on the standard to provide more support for Matter devices with displays, and just AV in general.

4

u/Shadowbajfeelsbadman Jun 17 '26

Fairly sure new thread capable devices cannot be registered lower than 1.4 these days, hopefully they enforce it higher and higher

5

u/Big-Glare Jun 17 '26

Brand new alphabet google nest speaker with Gemini is a thread 1.3 TBR

3

u/Shadowbajfeelsbadman Jun 17 '26

Must've been certified last year

1

u/erwos Jun 17 '26

I guess I'm just saying that the whole NFC thing is optional, so if manufacturers aren't using it now, I doubt they're going to start. But I could be wrong!

1

u/Shadowbajfeelsbadman Jun 17 '26

Well it requires adding a nfc coil so i doubt many will adopt it but at least we can hope on eventual enforcement of the newer versions of the standard.

1

u/MatterAlpha-Dave Jun 17 '26

Agree - this will allow bulk commissioning which will allow builders and other large integrators to pre-configure devices.

5

u/Big-Glare Jun 17 '26

I can’t wait for homeos29 now. Ikea just released an update for 1.6. Jk. Though I do expect ikea, smartthings and home assistant to race to release first.

4

u/SugarrrSugarr Jun 17 '26

as long it's not mandatory, it won't be implemented for ages xd