It's been a pretty boring year for smart home enthusiasts. There just haven't been a ton of developments in this space, as manufacturers are currently focused on the upcoming Matter unification standard. Unfortunately, Matter just got delayed. Again.

The Matter smart home unification standard promises to eliminate the barriers between smart home products and voice assistants. Basically, all products with Matter will work together regardless of their brand. It's such a useful standard that major players like Google, Amazon, and Apple are cooperating on its development.

But maybe there's a bit too much enthusiasm. At least 130 products will support Matter when it launches later this year---a lot more than what the Connectivity Standards Alliance initially expected. Naturally, all of these devices will contribute to Matter's development time, which is why the standard is now delayed until fall of 2022.

Related: What Google's Support of the Matter Smart Home Protocol Means For You

The Connectivity Standards Alliance says it will use this delay to finalize the Matter SDK. Additionally, the group needs to certify that smart home products actually work with Matter.

When we first heard about Matter, we were promised a 2021 launch. The standard was then delayed until summer of 2022, and now, it won't come out until fall of this year. But it's not that big of a deal. Matter promises to streamline smart homes and make all IoT devices compatible with one another. It's worth waiting a few extra months for such a groundbreaking development.

Source: CSA