Home Assistant is now officially Matter certified. The open-source smart home automation software has long supported Matter, as well as other protocols like Zigbee and Z-Wave. However, it has recently gained certification from the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the guardians of this standard.
In fact, there are two certifications for Home Assistant. Home Assistant itself is now a certified user interface component, and the Open Home Foundation Matter Server is a certified software component. The latter is the first open-source project to gain CSA certification. According to the company, these two separate certifications remove the need for recertification each time Home Assistant is updated. As such, the Open Home Foundation Matter Server will remain an add-on rather than being integrated directly into the Home Assistant Core.
This Matter certification has no immediate impact on existing Home Assistant users. The company has pledged to continue to update the Matter Server and Matter integration as before. What Home Assistant hopes it will gain from this recognition is trust from new Home Assistant users, as well as encouraging more brands to join the Works With Home Assistant program. This already includes several Matter devices, such as the Aqara Smart Lock U200 (curr. $229.49 at Amazon).