The Matter standard for smart home devices has been full of great promise, but the vast majority of people haven’t been able to experience it for themselves. If you’re curious, here’s what it’s like to use Matter on Android with the Google Home app.
Matter was officially launched last year with the promise of making smart home gear work on all platforms and making everything much easier to set up. But most existing smart home equipment doesn’t offer support for Matter. On the contrary, it requires an update or even brand new hardware to boot.
Last year, Google announced it was updating several Nest devices, such as the Nest Wifi Pro, to include support for being a Matter hub. And, on top of that, the company has also rolled out the ability for Android to easily detect and configure Matter devices and link them to the Google Home app.
TP-Link sent us their latest smart plug, the Tapo P125M, which is the company’s first Matter-ready product. Available for sale now, the plug is one of the first ways customers experience Matter, and it quickly showed us just how enjoyable Matter can be.
Unboxing the Tapo smart plug quickly showed its QR Matter code taped to the side, and also available on a sticker in the box. Plugging in the device let it start. From there, I had to put the device into pairing mode by holding down the power button for a few seconds, which is mentioned in the quick start guide.
But unlike all the other smart home gear in my house, I didn’t download any apps to configure this outlet. Once pairing mode was activated, my Pixel 7 Pro quickly launched Android’s Fast Pair UI with a setup prompt for the device.
First I had to scan the QR code, at which point the setup process began. I was asked to link the device to an app – Google Home was the only compatible app on my phone, but the Tapo app as well as Samsung SmartThings should also show up here if installed once the updates are in place (the Tapo app is technically not yet supported by Matter). From there, I allowed the device to be linked to my Google account, gave it a unique name, and assigned it to a room.
The whole process took barely a minute and was by far the smoothest setup I’ve ever experienced with any smart home equipment.
And really, there seems to be no downside to just using the Google Home app and Android setup to control this Matter-enabled smart plug. It responds to the on/off toggle in the Home app just as quickly, otherwise faster than the Kasa app that I use for the other TP-Link outlets in my house. I also tested resetting the outlet (holding down the power button for 10 seconds) and the setup was just as easy to set up. The Home app even automatically removed the duplicate device from my home.
Matter has bigger promise than just faster setup, like using these devices in apps and ecosystems. But really, if this quick and intuitive setup is all we get from Matter in the long run, I’m happy. It’s a game changer for the future, and I can’t wait to see more.
And what about the Tapo Mini Smart Wi-Fi socket itself? It really works just as well as the rest of TP-Link’s hugely popular smart plugs, that’s just way easier to set up. The Plug is available now on Amazon for $19.99 and is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to experience Matter for yourself now.
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