Matter support is now available in the Google Home app on iOS

Ben Schoon | Jun 5 2023 - 8:21 am PT

Matter hasn’t made quite the splash many were hoping, but the smart home standard is making its way to more and more devices. Now, Matter support is live in the Google Home app for iOS.

Support for Matter first went live at the tail-end of last year, and it was available to the Google Home app on Android pretty quickly. By the end of January, Matter-compatible devices were finally available and gave us a glimpse at how the Home app would support the standard.

But, unfortunately, iOS users were left out for quite a while.

At Google I/O last month, it was announced that Matter support would be rolling out to Google Home for iOS soon, and it seems that’s widely available as of this week. We’re seeing the Matter update for Google Home live now on our iPhone test unit, with support for setting up a Matter device via QR code or a written code as seen below. Support mostly mirrors Android, though there’s no Fast Pair for Matter devices to the Home app as we see on Android.

The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuhy notes that Google started the rollout on May 26, a little over a week ago at this point.

It’s not entirely clear if this is a server-side change or attached to a specific app version, but we were able to use Matter support immediately after updating the Google Home app on iOS to version 3.1.

Notably, this update should make it much easier to pair the Nest Thermostat to the Apple Home app via Matter, which previously required an Android phone.