Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Build your Amazon Alexa smart home with our step-by-step guide
The Matter smart home is now a thing – albeit with some early teething issues.
Matter devices are now on sale, from the likes of Nanoleaf, Eve, SwitchBot, Govee, TP-Link, Wiz and Meross, and there are a huge amount of Matter smart home devices expected to hit the shops in the coming months from anyone and everyone in tech.
Early adopters have found that adding Matter smart home devices to their smart home ecosystems hasn’t quite been the easy ride that we were promised.
With Matter, things were meant to get simpler for the smart home, but that hasn’t quite been the case so far.
However, we are seeing some signs of improvement and, if you’re looking to add Matter devices to your Amazon Alexa smart home, whether that’s Matter over Thread or Matter over Wi-Fi, things are pretty straightforward now.
Here’s how to get your Matter smart home devices singing and dancing with your Alexa smart home…
What you’ll need
- Your smartphone or tablet with the Alexa app
- A Matter controller such as an Echo Hub or a 4th-gen Amazon Echo
- The Matter device you want to add
- The Matter QR code or pin
Matter and Alexa checklist
Matter is meant to be simple but the reality is that, at the moment at least, it really isn’t.
What is simple is that you will need a Matter controller to connect your Matter enabled devices to – and the good news is that you’ve probably already got one of those in your house.
For an Alexa system to sync and control your Matter devices, that Matter controller needs to be a compatible Echo device, setup via the Alexa app (which is, to give it its technical term – the Matter commissioner.)
Technically, you can add Matter devices to your Alexa system that have initially been setup via a different, non-Amazon, controller (such as an Apple HomePod) but that’s another guide for another day.
For now then, before we hit the steps below we’ll assume you’ve already got an Echo device in your house that can work as a Matter controller (you probably have – check our list of all the Matter controllers here) and you’re already powering your smart home with Alexa.
Bonus points if you’ve got an Amazon Echo 4th-gen, 3rd-gen Show 8 or the smart-home focused Echo Hub, as these also doubles up as a Thread border routers.
If that’s the case, let’s go…
The short version
- Open the Alexa app on your smartphone or tablet.
- Hit the plus icon (top right corner).
- Select Add Device.
- Scroll down and choose Other at the bottom of the list.
- Tap Matter and follow the steps.
Time needed: 4 minutes
- Power up your Matter device
Whatever Matter device you are wanting to add to your SmartThings system, get it plugged in and ready for pairing.
- Open the Alexa app and tick the + in the top right corner.
This will bring you up a list of device types. Scroll down to the bottom, choose other and then tap the Matter logo.
Note, as in the image below with the Nanoleaf bulb, your Matter device may already pop up after you hit Add Device. If it does, just tap it and follow the instructions.
- Follow the steps to add your Matter device
Confirm that you have a Matter device by tapping Yes. Scan your Matter QR Code or enter the numeric code.
The process is the same whether you are adding a Matter Thread or Wi-Fi device but just be aware that you will need a Thread border router in place if it’s a Matter over Thread device.
That border router doesn’t need to be Amazon-made but does make things a bit simpler if you can use either the 4th-gen Echo or an Eero device with border router capabilities.
Once you’ve done the above, you’ll see your Matter devices listed alongside all of your other smart home kit and you’ll be able to integrate them into Alexa Routines and the like.
See also…
How to add Matter devices to Alexa
How to add Matter devices to your Apple Home app
How to add Matter devices to Google Home
FAQs
Absolutely loads, including the 2nd and 3rd-gen Echo, 4th-gen Echo (which also functions as a Thread border router), Echo Dot (2nd-gen+ with Clock), Echo Flex, Echo Hub (also a Thread border router), Echo Input, Echo Pop, Echo Plus (2nd-gen), Echo Show 10 (3rd-gen), Echo Show 5 (2nd-gen+), Echo Show 8 (1st and 2nd-gen), Echo Show 8 (3rd-gen, also a Thread border router), Echo Show 15, and Echo Studio (both generations)
In theory, all Matter certified devices work with Alexa, but that’s not entirely true as certain device types – including all of those introduced with Matter 1.2 such as robot vacuum cleaners – aren’t supported yet.
Yes, you’ll just need an 11-digit setup code from the app that you originally set up the device with.
