Step-by-step guide to syncing Matter tech with your Google Assistant powered smart home
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
An ever-growing selection of Matter compatible smart home devices, spanning a spectrum of brands including Nanoleaf, Roborock, Eve, TP-Link, Govee, Homey and Aqara, is now at your fingertips.
We’re expecting a multitude of Matter smart home devices to enter the smart home market in the coming weeks, months and years, particularly as the ever-evolving standard broadens its horizons beyond its inaugural launch device categories.
Every Matter update, which arrive every six months, brings with it a raft of new categories to the mix… we’ve seen the likes of washing machines, refrigerators, AC units and robot vacuum cleaners added to the list in the last couple of launches.
However, early adopters who’ve taken the Matter leap have discovered that adding Matter smart home devices into their existing smart home systems hasn’t unfolded with the seamlessness initially expected
Despite Matter’s pledge to streamline the landscape of smart homes, its execution has hit a few snags thus far, although Matter 1.4 recently arrived and is promising to iron out some of the creases.
Hints of progress are beginning to surface and if you want to integrate Matter devices into your Google Home, either using Thread-based or Wi-Fi based Matter smart home devices, you’ll find that the process is considerably smoother following the recent updates.
It’s super simple now to get your Matter devices singing and dancing with your Google Assistant within a matter of minutes.
Here’s how to add Matter smart home tech to your Google Home setup…
What you’ll need
- Your smartphone or tablet with the Google Home app
- A Matter controller such as as a Nest Hub, Google Home or Nest Wifi
- The Matter device you want to add
- The Matter QR code or pin
Matter and Google Home checklist
Matter promised us a much simpler smart home but, for now at least, that’s not really the case. It’s still very much a work in progress.
However, the basic premise of getting Matter devices added to your Google Home is simple. You just need a Matter controller to connect your Matter devices to; and the good news is that you’ve probably already got one of those in your house if you’re reading this guide.
For a Google Home setup to sync and control your Matter devices, that Matter controller needs to be a Google-made one; of which there’s plenty to choose from including the likes of the original Google Home, all generations of the Google Home and Nest Minis, the Nest Audio, first and second gen Nest Hubs, the Nest Hub Max and Nest Wifi routers.
The Nest Hub (2nd gen), Nest Hub Max and Nest Wifi Pro also offer Thread border router capabilities too.
Technically, you can add Matter devices to your Google Home system and control them through Google Assistant that have initially been setup via a different, non-Google, controller (such as an Apple TV 4K) but that’s another how-to guide, for another day.
For now, before we go through the steps below we’ll assume you’ve already got a Google Home device in your house that can work as a Matter controller and you’re already powering your smart home with the Google Assistant, using either the iOS or Android version of the Google Home app – which will be your ‘Matter commissioner’.
The short version
- Open the Google Home app on your smartphone or tablet.
- Power up the Matter device you want to pair.
- Follow the instructions in the app, the device should be detected automatically.
How to add Matter devices to Google Home
Time needed: 5 minutes
- Power up the Matter device
Whatever Matter device you wan to add to your Google Home system, get it plugged in, fired up and ready for pairing.
- Open the Google Home app on your phone or tablet
The Google Home app should automatically detect the Matter device and you and you will see a pop-up notification.
Tap Set up in the notification. Then tap Next in the screen that shows your device that has been found. Scan the Matter QR code of your Matter-enabled device using your phone’s camera. Tap I agree to add the device to your Google Account. - Manually add the device if it’s not automatically detected
If you don’t get a notification when you first open Google Home, simply tap Devices from he bottom bar. Then tap the +Add button and choose New device.
The app will look for devices to add. If it fails to find your Matter device then simply tap Matter-enabled device. Choose the home where you want to add your device.
Once you’ve done all this, the Matter device should be synced and you can choose a room where it lives and give it a name.
It’s then ready to be integrated into your Google Home setup, for automations and the like.
If, in the unlikely event you are doing all this without having a Google Home Matter controller in place, you’ll see a message that “a hub is required to control your Matter-enabled device through the Google Home app.”
FAQs
Google Home (1st-gen)
Google Home Mini (all-gens)
Google Nest Audio
Google Nest Hub (1st-gen)
Google Nest Hub 2nd-gen (also Thread border router)
Google Nest Hub Max (also Thread border router)
Google Nest Mini
Google Nest WiFi
Google Nest WiFi Pro (also Thread border router)
All Matter certified smart home devices should work with Google Home, but certain device types – including all of those introduced with Matter 1.2 such as robot vacuum cleaners – aren’t currently supported.
No, not at present.
See also…
How to add Matter devices to Alexa
