You can buy a Matter-certified smart button today, put it on your nightstand, and find out it does nothing on Google Home or Amazon Alexa. That button — the Arre — is certified for Matter 1.0. It broadcasts itself as a generic switch, which has been a standard device type since Matter 1.0 launched in October 2022. Four years later, two of the three largest smart home platforms still refuse to talk to it. This is not a corner case. It is the cleanest illustration of the gap between what Matter promises and what it actually delivers in mid‑2026.
Before you decide which ecosystem to bet on, here is what each platform actually supports — and what it does not. The table below is built from the latest firmware versions as of June 2026, using data from matter‑smarthome.de, Data Wire Solutions, and The Gadgeteer.
| Platform | Matter Spec Version | Thread Border Router | Missing / Unsatisfied Device Types |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Home | 1.4 (partial) | 1.3 pending tvOS 26 | No heat pumps, no solar inverters; adaptive lighting lost over Matter |
| Google Home | 1.3 (some 1.0 gaps) | 1.3 | Generic switches (Matter 1.0), no leak sensors |
| Amazon Alexa | 1.4 SDK (subset) | 1.3 | Generic switches, leak sensors, no power monitoring for Matter energy devices |
| Samsung SmartThings | 1.5 | 1.4 | None confirmed; fastest to adopt new specs |
| Home Assistant | 1.3 (1.4+ via software) | 1.3 | No native gaps, but requires technical setup for Thread |
SmartThings adopts new Matter versions faster than anyone. Apple’s implementation is polished but loses adaptive lighting and lacks Thread 1.3 until later this year. Google still cannot handle a generic switch from Matter 1.0 — a basic device type defined four years ago. Amazon skips power monitoring for energy devices and also ignores generic switches. Home Assistant has no native gaps, but you need to set up Thread yourself. No platform checks every box. The only honest answer to “which smart home system should I buy?” is: it depends on what you are willing to lose.
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