Matter Protocol

Standardized application layer foundation for connected things

At Nordic Semiconductor, we are committed to driving innovation in low-power wireless solutions, and Matter represents an exciting leap forward for smart home connectivity. Matter is an open-source standard developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), that enables seamless interoperability between IoT devices from different manufacturers.

As a leader in Bluetooth® Low Energy (LE), Thread, and Wi-Fi, Nordic provides Matter-ready solutions that help developers create secure, low-power, and future-proof smart home products. Our nRF54L Series SoCs, combined with our nRF Connect SDK, offer a robust platform for building Matter-compliant devices using Thread and Bluetooth LE. Additionally, our nRF7002 Wi-Fi companion IC extends Matter support to Wi-Fi-based applications.

With Nordic's energy-efficient hardware and developer-friendly software tools, bringing Matter-certified products to market has never been easier. Whether you're building smart lighting, door locks, sensors, or other home automation devices, Nordic's proven, scalable, and secure wireless solutions ensure a smooth path to Matter certification.

Learn Matter on Nordic SoCs.

Matter Fundamentals is a free, hands-on course on Nordic Developer Academy that walks engineers through the Matter architecture, commissioning flow, and security model, then takes you from flashing your first Matter sample to a fully commissioned device on your Nordic DK. Built around the nRF Connect SDK, with a Matter over Thread focus and Wi-Fi covered throughout.

We enable your Matter projects

Up to date Matter integration

Our Matter implementation for nRF Connect SDK ships as an independently versioned Add-on, so new Matter releases and features are available on their own schedule, without waiting for the next nRF Connect SDK release. Combined solutions, Matter and Zigbee, and Matter and Edge AI, are available as separate Add-ons as well. To learn more, have a look at our documentation.

Matter Samples

We have samples including a light bulb, light switch, contact sensor, closure, smoke CO alarm, thermostat, window covering, a sample that demonstrates custom manufacturer-specific clusters, as well as a Template sample that demonstrates a minimal implementation of the matter application layer. The template sample is the perfect starting point if you want to create a device type that is not already represented in one of the other samples. All Samples can be found here.

All samples are optimized for low power consumption and most support Matter over Wi-Fi in addition to Matter over Thread. 

You can also find two application examples in the documentation:

  • The Matter weather station runs on the nRF54L15 Tag or the Thingy:53 Prototyping platform and has participated in a Matter Specification and Validation Event (SVE), successfully passed all tests and is considered to be compliant with Matter 1.0 certification.
  • The Matter bridge is an application that allows the use of non Matter devices in a Matter fabric, basically allowing Bluetooth LE peripheral devices to act as matter devices. The matter bridge architecture also allows you to add support for other technologies like Zigbee or Bluetooth Mesh.

 

We provide a comprehensive user guide about configuring a Matter development environment. The guide explains how to run a Matter accessory on a Nordic Development Kit. It shows what types of Matter controllers to use and how to set them up together with a Thread Border router.

diagram showing a Matter test setup. A Matter controller running on a pc, connected to a matter accessory (Thingy:53) and to a Wi-Fi Access Point. The Wi-Fi Access point ic connected to a Thread Border Router. Both the Matter accessory and the Border router can communicate with the Thread network Matter protocol, Matter development, Developing for Matter

These examples show the usage of Matter with our nRF connect SDK. The weather station example lets you remotely gather different kinds of data. It collects temperature, air pressure, and relative humidity, using the device sensors. The resulting device works as a Matter accessory device. It can pair and be remotely controlled over a Matter network built on top of a low-power, 802.15.4 Thread network. Use these samples as references to create your own devices




Matter

Add-on for the nRF Connect SDK.

The Matter Add-on provides Matter as an independently versioned package on top of our nRF Connect SDK. Matter releases and features ship on their own schedule, without waiting for the next nRF Connect SDK release, while a LTS version of nRF Connect SDK provides a stable, long-supported base to build on.

It covers the full range of Matter accessory types, from lighting and sensors to closures and thermostats, plus a bridge for connecting non-Matter Bluetooth LE devices into a Matter fabric.

Documentation for the Matter and Zigbee Add-on is available here.

Matter and Zigbee

Add-on for the nRF Connect SDK

The Matter and Zigbee Add-on lets you build a single device that supports both Matter and Zigbee, switching between the two protocols rather than running them at the same time. This suits vendors offering existing Zigbee customers an upgrade path to Matter, or shipping one product variant that works with either ecosystem.

Two switching modes are supported: a one-time upgrade path, where the device starts on Zigbee, advertises Matter capability over Bluetooth LE in the background, and switches to Matter once commissioned, falling back to Zigbee if the Matter network becomes unavailable; and bi-directional switching on a button press, which persists network data across repeated switches.

The add-on integrates the Zigbee R23 add-on and the Matter stack through the nRF Connect SDK, and supports the nRF54L15, nRF54LM20A, and nRF54LM20B SoCs. It includes light switch and light bulb samples, with DFU over Bluetooth LE SMP enabled by default and Zigbee FOTA available to enable.

Documentation for the Matter and Zigbee Add-on is available here.

Matter and Edge AI

The Matter Edge AI Add-on adds a sample built on Matter, combined with voice control courtesy of our wake word and keyword spotting technologies. The sample runs entirely on the nRF54LM20B SoC, using the Axon NPU for AI inference of wake word and keywords, while the Matter light switch application runs on the main Arm Cortex CPU.

To use the voice-controlled light switch, say the wake word "okay Nordic" to enable keyword spotting, then select one of five commands: "toggle lights" and "scene 1" through "scene 4". Scenes are configured in your Matter ecosystem.

Documentation for the Matter and Edge AI Add-on, including details on trying out the voice-controlled light switch, is available here.