What Matter still cannot do, four years in

The two different kinds of gap#

Almost every complaint about Matter is one of two things, and they have different fixes.

Specification gaps are features Matter does not define. No controller can expose them, no firmware update adds them, and the only fix is a future release. Robot vacuum maps are a specification gap.

Implementation gaps are features Matter defines that your controller has not shipped. The hardware may already support them, and a software update can close the gap tomorrow. Matter 1.5 cameras on Google Home are an implementation gap.

Our Matter feature gap tracker keeps the two apart per controller. The table below is the current summary.

Specification gaps#

Robot vacuums keep almost nothing#

Matter added robot vacuums in version 1.2 in October 2023, and the device type covers running, pausing, docking and reporting a cleaning mode. It does not cover maps, no-go zones, virtual walls, scheduling, consumable life or dock state. The optional service area cluster is the closest thing to room selection, and all it carries is a list of vendor-named area IDs.

Support is thinner still than the specification: Google Home does not implement the service area cluster at all, and Alexa maps only run mode. That means "clean the kitchen" is not something Matter can express on most platforms, and the vendor app remains the only place to draw a no-go zone. See robot vacuums in a smart home for what that leaves you with.

Cameras: no storage, no detection types, no resolution#

The Matter 1.5 camera specification is genuinely well designed, and it deliberately stops short of the parts people actually pay for. It does not define resolution, does not dictate AI detection types such as person or package, and does not cover storage of footage. Zone triggers carry exactly one reason value, motion.

The consequence is direct: a camera company can be fully Matter certified and still require a subscription before you can review a recording. Matter standardizes the pipe, not the service. The full picture is in Matter cameras and cameras and doorbells.

Vendor features reduce to the standard set#

Anything a manufacturer built on top of standard clusters is invisible over Matter. Govee-style lighting effects reduce to on, off, dim and solid color. Hue dynamic scenes and entertainment mode do not survive a bridge. Multi-button remotes often arrive as fewer buttons than they have.

Device types that do not exist yet#

Matter defines 92 device types. Notable absences as of September 2026:

• Security and alarm panels, keypads and sirens
• Multi-room and streaming audio, an open request since January 2024
• Humidifiers and dehumidifiers
• Circuit breakers and electrical panels
• Camera AI analytics
• Robot lawn mowers, and pet feeders

Most of these appear in the draft for 1.7, which is a reason for optimism and not a purchase justification. Which device types Matter supports has the category-by-category breakdown.

The bigger problem: controller lag#

Specification gaps get the headlines. Controller lag is what actually determines whether your device works.

The clearest example: Google shipped its Matter 1.2 appliance types in September 2025, roughly 23 months after that specification was published. Air purifiers, dishwashers, laundry washers and robot vacuums existed as certified device types for nearly two years before one of the three largest ecosystems could show them. Reporting from the alliance's own June 2026 event summarized the state of the big three as Apple, Google and Amazon being "barely at 1.3".

Ecosystems typically take 6 to 12 months to implement a new Matter release, and the slowest take far longer. That produces the single most common user experience of Matter in 2026: a device that is half-working, because the controller understands some of its clusters and ignores the rest.

Two more consequences of the version mismatch worth naming:

• The popcorn effect. Grouped Matter lights turn on one at a time instead of together, when a controller sends individual commands rather than using group multicast or wildcard paths.
• Fragmented Thread meshes. Border routers from different ecosystems form separate networks that users often cannot disable, covered in why you have three Thread networks.

Certification is not behavior#

A Matter certificate proves a sample passed conformance testing. It does not prove the product in your hand works well, for two reasons.

First, three shortcut paths exist: certification by similarity, product family certification, and certification transfer. Under all three, only the original product passes lab testing. A rebadged or lightly modified variant inherits the certificate. That is also why the alliance's certification records run into the thousands while the number of distinct certified products is over 1,200 as of June 2026.

Second, conformance testing checks that clusters behave as specified, not that pairing is reliable in a real house with a busy 2.4 GHz band. The clearest failure was IKEA's Matter over Thread line in early 2026, where owners reported large numbers of devices failing to pair and press reviewers needed repeated attempts per device. Every one of those products was certified.

Local control is not guaranteed#

This is the most commonly repeated misconception about Matter, and the alliance's own FAQ contradicts it: Matter-only devices need an internet-connected controller for control when you are away from home. On the local network, whether commands stay local depends entirely on your platform:

• Google Home local Matter control covers lights, plugs and switches only. Routines and all voice remain cloud side. The global outage on 18 August 2026 lasted about twelve hours and left Nest hubs unresponsive.
• Alexa maps Matter clusters onto cloud-side capability interfaces, so commands generally make a round trip.
• Apple Home runs automations on the hub and keeps LAN control during an outage, while Siri and remote access do not work.
• Home Assistant, Hubitat and Homey run the control path locally by design.

Thread devices add a second requirement: a border router your ecosystem trusts. The scoring behind these differences is in the Local Control Index, and the device-by-device outage picture is in what still works when the internet goes down.

Fabric exhaustion and orphaned slots#

Devices are only required to support five fabrics, and slots are easier to lose than to reclaim. Removing a device in a controller's interface does not reliably send the remove-fabric command, so the slot stays occupied and only a factory reset clears it. Apple Home can also consume a slot per iCloud Keychain-synced administrator. The mechanism, and the workarounds, are in sharing a Matter device across ecosystems.

Joint Fabric, made certifiable in Matter 1.6 in June 2026, is designed to remove this limit entirely. No consumer ecosystem has shipped it, and its 1.4 predecessor Fabric Sync was never shipped by anyone.

Firmware updates are optional#

Over-the-air updates are an optional part of Matter. As of 2026, Eve, Nanoleaf and IKEA publish updates through the alliance's Distributed Compliance Ledger, and the controllers that can deliver them include Apple Home, SmartThings, Home Assistant, Google (from September 2025) and Homey (from August 2026).

There is a documented cross-vendor trap: Home Assistant Matter updates do not work for Thread devices on a network with Apple border routers, because those border routers do not forward the mDNS packets the update path needs. Devices behind a bridge never get updates over Matter at all.

What Matter genuinely fixed#

It would be dishonest to end there. Measured against the situation before October 2022, Matter delivered real things:

The reasonable position in 2026: buy Matter for lights, plugs, switches, sensors, locks and shades, where it works well and portability is worth real money. For vacuums, cameras, appliances and energy, buy the device that works in your ecosystem today and treat Matter as a bonus. The pre-purchase checklist turns that into questions you can answer at checkout.