One of the key changes Matter is bringing to the smart home is a standardized way to enable local control of smart devices. This means your light bulb doesn’t have to talk to the cloud when you ask your voice assistant to turn it off. While some smart home ecosystems already offer local control, Matter should make implementing it easier for every smart home platform.

This week, Google announced it has added full local control of Matter devices to its Google Home hubs by integrating Home Runtime. Now, Google Nest hubs and speakers, Chromecasts, Google TV devices on Android 14, and some LG TVs can connect to and control Matter devices locally.

“This means when a user who has a hub for Google Home device (at home) is viewing or controlling their Matter devices (at home), they can do so with higher reliability, privacy, and lower latency,” Jeannie Zhang, product manager for Google Home, told The Verge.

This is a significant change for the platform, which has historically relied on cloud connectivity for device control. Now, if the internet is down and you ask Google Assistant to turn on the lights, it should actually be able to follow through.

Google also shared details on its recent efforts to help developers make more products that work with Matter. These include working with the Connectivity Standards Alliance to make certifying Matter devices easier and partnering with MediaTek to build a new chip that includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, and Thread. This should make it “easier and more affordable for device OEMs to build Thread into all their new products,” Google Home senior engineering director Matt Van Der Staay writes.

Finally, Google is opening its Home APIs to all developers. This allows developers to integrate Google Home devices and automations into their own apps, allowing them to focus their resources on building devices rather than integrations.

Google announced the Home APIs at I/O, but they weren’t available to all developers. The program had been in an early access phase with companies such as Eve, Nanoleaf, LG, ADT, Cync, Yale, and Aqara. Now, any company can access the Android version of the Home APIs in public developer beta, with the iOS version coming soon. Google says the Home APIs consist of:

Device and Structure APIs: With one single integration, get access to over 600M devices already connected to Google Home and a single unified interface to manage and control both cloud-connected and Matter devices across Google Home, enabling local control, broad device reach, and support for Matter custom clusters.

Commissioning API: Simplifies device set up with Fast Pair on 3 billion Android devices, commission Matter devices directly within your app, enabling seamless onboarding, voice control via Google Assistant, and compatibility with the Google Home ecosystem.

Automation API: Empower your users with all the tools needed to create and manage home automations directly in your app, leveraging extensive signals, commands, and Google specific AI-driven capabilities for personalized and intelligent home experiences.

Essentially, all of this allows developers to use the Google Home platform to power their app’s automations and integrations with other devices. While this can significantly speed up development — it helped Eve finally launch an app for Android — the downside is if Google ever pulled the API access (as it did when it shut down its Works with Nest program), developers would be left high and dry.

However, despite its history here, the likelihood of that happening seems slim. From what I’ve seen, the company does seem to be taking a more thoughtful, thorough approach to the smart home.

Home appliance manufacturer Bosch is showing off its first Matter-enabled appliance on the show floor at CES this week. The 100 Series French Door Bottom Mount Refrigerator launched in November and should be available to buy in the US this spring.

The fridge retails for $2,500 and has a chip on board that supports Matter. A firmware update to the smart home standard will come this summer, says Eelco Lammertink of BSH, which owns Bosch, Siemens, Thermador, and Gaggenau.

The 100 Series is the sister product to the Matter-enabled Siemens XXL fridge I spotted at IFA in Berlin last November. That built-in model will come to the European market on a similar timeline. Lammertink tells me BSH plans to bring Matter to all of its appliances across its Bosch, Siemens, and Thermador lines, starting with refrigerators this year, one more appliance category next year, and three in 2026.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The 100 Series will support Matter 1.3, allowing you to control the temperature remotely and receive notifications from the fridge on your smart home platform of choice. That way, a smart speaker can announce when the door has been left open.

While many smart fridges already have these features, with Matter, the connection between the appliance and the ecosystem becomes local — making it faster and more secure. Currently, only Samsung SmartThings and Home Assistant support appliances in Matter, but Lammertink tells me that Amazon will support them this year. There is no word on Google Home or Apple Home yet.

Lammertink says the plan is to bring energy reporting and energy management capabilities to the fridge. This would enable it to be part of a Matter-enabled whole home energy management system. Sadly, he said they won’t be updating existing appliances to Matter (bad news for my Thermador range and dishwasher). “The challenges are too big,” he said. “We just can’t risk bricking your fridge.”

What if your cat tower could weigh your furry friend, monitor its health, and help keep their pesky dander spores out of your air? That’s the idea behind LG’s new AeroCatTower, an air purifier with a cat-friendly dome-shaped seat on top for your feline to curl up in.

The company showcased the gadget at its CES 2025 booth this week, complete with some rather creepy-looking fake cats.

The tower also features a heater to keep your kitty cozy, and the second platform can be used to help senior cats get up to the platform or for a second pet. The air purifier can adjust to a lower flow when there’s a feline on board — so as not to disturb — then ramp up when they leave to help clear the air.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

A built-in scale will keep track of their weight using the LG ThinQ app, and you can also see how long your friend has been sleeping... so you can seriously sleep-shame them. Lazy sods.

As with virtually everything being shown at LG’s booth at CES this year, there is no pricing or release date.

Most robot vacuum mops can tackle mopping your floors and maybe scrub up a dried-on stain, but let them trundle through a puddle of spilled milk or juice, and they’re likely to smear the liquid around. If they do suck any up, it could seriously damage the robot’s internals — robot vacuums are not wet / dry vacs.

Robot vacuum manufacturer Eureka claims to have solved this problem with its new J15 Max Ultra ($1,299). According to the company, this robot vacuum and mop, debuting at CES 2025, can accurately spot liquids and automatically rotate its body to tackle wet spills with its mopping pads.

“The J15 Max Ultra adds an infrared vision system to the robot vac, so it can detect the 3D structure of anything in front of it no matter what the lighting is,” Yuan Ruan, PR manager of Midea Group, which owns Eureka, told The Verge in an interview. This allows it to spot and react to liquid spills, both clear and colored. In addition to mopping first, it also raises its roller brush to avoid sucking any liquid into the bin.

While most people aren’t likely to leave wet puddles on their floors — grabbing some paper towel to soak it up only takes a few seconds — it’s feasible that a pet might leave a wet mess while you’re not home. This type of advancement in the capabilities of a robot vacuum to react to what it’s cleaning and adjust appropriately is encouraging.

Over the past few years, high-end robot vacuums have gotten smarter about identifying and reacting to specific objects — such as cables, solid pet waste, and socks — using cameras and computer vision.

Models from companies like iRobot and Roborock can determine what to do based on the type of object they spot. So, rather than simply avoid an object, they will adapt how they clean if they spot certain items. For example, if it’s a pet bowl or kitty litter tray, get close and increase the suction; if it’s a Christmas tree or potted plant, approach with care.

Image: Eureka

Eureka’s new liquid spotting ability builds on this type of intelligence. Eventually, we’ll get to the point where robot vacuums can accurately identify most items in our homes and clean them similar to how we would.

Eureka’s smarts are powered by its new IntelliView AI 2.0 technology, which adds IR vision to the robot’s lidar navigation system and uses computer vision to help it decide how to clean what it sees or if it should avoid it.

Image: Eureka

The Eureka J15 Max Ultra is an upgrade to the J15 Pro Ultra ($999.99), which can identify colored liquids but not clear or white ones. The Max also features a new extendable side brush that can reach out into corners (a feature first seen in the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra). It also adds increased suction power — up to 22,000Pa from 16,500Pa — increased battery capacity, and a threshold crossing height of up to 40mm.

Both models feature Eureka’s FlexiRazor tech that uses razors inside the robot’s brush system to cut out tangles and dual spinning mop pads that can extend into corners and edges and light up when they detect carpet. The J15 line also has auto-empty base stations that can refill the mopping tank and wash and dry the robot’s mop pads with hot water and air.

The company also introduced the more affordable J15 Ultra to its lineup at CES. The $799 model has most of the same features as the $1,000 J15 Pro Ultra, including the ability to detect colored liquids, but with an increased 19,000Pa of suction power. It will be available in March 2025. The J15 Max Ultra will be available in June 2025.

First, they sprouted arms; now, robot vacuums are getting legs. The latest bot from Dreame has two small legs that can push it up and over a step as high as 6cm (about 2.5 inches).

The Dreame X50 Ultra robot vacuum uses a system called ProLeap, which the company first demoed at the IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany, last year. Dreame calls the device’s appendage a “motorized swing arm” that “enables step navigation up to 6 cm in height.” But they’re clearly legs.

Image: Dreame

While this isn’t quite the stair climbing we’ve all been hoping for, it could be very useful for helping a robot vacuum reach more areas of your home without manual intervention.

Several current robot vacuums have a lifting capability that can help them get over high room transitions or bulky rugs; Roborock’s Qrevo Curv can handle 3cm, and Shark’s latest can go up to 2cm. Six centimeters is a big leap.

The Dreame X50 Ultra is the next generation of the company’s flagship X40 Ultra (which is our current pick for the best robot vacuum / mop hybrid). A robot vacuum with oscillating mopping pads, the X50 has advanced obstacle recognition and lidar navigation. It comes with a multifunction charging dock that can empty its bin and wash its mops with hot water and heated air. It can also automatically remove and reattach its mops. It will be available for $1,699.99 starting on February 14th. A presale featuring discounts starts on January 7th on Dreame’s website.

Lockly is one of the more innovative smart lock makers. Last year at CES, the company debuted the first consumer smart lock to unlock with your face, and this year, Lockly is upping the game by adding a video doorbell to its facial recognition smart lock. There’s also a built-in screen so you can see who is at the door right from your door lock. Lockly is also launching its first ultra wideband-powered smart lock, adding hands-free unlocking to the mix, along with its first standalone security cameras.

Image: Lockly

The Vision Prestige will cost $499.99 and is slated for release in Q4 of 2025. The smart deadbolt lock can be unlocked with your face, fingerprint, or a code on the touchscreen keypad, or you can use your iPhone or Apple Watch through Apple Home Key. The outside unit has a built-in 2K camera with a 190-degree viewing angle to see visitors, while the inside unit has a four-inch screen to show you who is at the door — like a digital peephole.

The lock uses a rechargeable 10,000mAh battery that promises up to eight months of battery life. It also features built-in support for 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, so there’s no need for a separate bridge like Lockly’s other video doorbell requires. The door lock is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home (but not the video doorbell).

Image: Lockly

The Secure Pro with ultra wideband will cost $379.99 and is also slated for Q4 2025. Using UWB technology, the Secure Pro can automatically unlock as you approach the door with a compatible smartphone or smartwatch. The UWB radio in the lock communicates with the one in your device to figure out exactly where you are and only unlocks as you approach from outside the house.

At launch, Lockly says hands-free unlocking will only work with UWB-enabled Android phones, which include recent flagships from Google and Samsung. Support for Apple’s UWB unlocking will be coming later. The Secure Pro supports Apple Home Key, too, so if you have an iPhone, you can tap to unlock with that or your Apple Watch. It also has a fingerprint reader, a touchscreen keypad, and a physical key.

Image: Lockly

Lockly is also branching out from smart locks and adding two new security cameras to its ecosystem. The outdoor-rated Sightline Pro ($149.99) is a pan and tilt 4K camera that can rotate 360 degrees and automatically track motion, and the Sightline ($69.99) is a fixed 2K camera with built-in spotlights. Both are battery-powered via a built-in battery, and a compatible solar panel can help keep them charged. They can record footage locally to a microSD card and work with the Lockly app.

Sadly, not all smart thermostats are things of beauty like the latest Nest Learning Thermostat, but that doesn’t mean they can’t save you some cash.

This week, Resideo announced the Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat, an entry-level smart thermostat that looks utilitarian but costs just $79.99 and works with Matter. This means it supports Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, and other systems for smart home and voice control of your HVAC system.

Launching this spring, the X2S is designed to be simple, straightforward, and deliver big energy savings. It features a big, bright screen and large, spongy push buttons for controlling the temperature. It’s compatible with existing Honeywell Home thermostat wiring plates — so you might not have to do any wiring at all to install it. Resideo says that if you use the app’s recommended set points, the X2S can save you an average of 22 percent on heating and 17 percent on cooling.

Image: Resideo

The X2S is the first Honeywell Home thermostat to work with Matter, which allows you to control the temperature and mode from any compatible ecosystem. It also works with Resideo’s First Alert app for more advanced features, such as scheduling and setting up an automatic away mode that uses geofencing to set the thermostat back when you leave home, helping save energy.

The Energy Star-rated thermostat requires a C wire and is compatible with up to two heating and cooling stages on conventional systems or up to two heating and one cooling stage on heat pump systems. It can also monitor humidity and offers air filter replacement reminders, but it won’t work with Honeywell Home’s room sensors.

According to Resideo, close to 80 percent of homes still don’t have connected thermostats, and this product is designed to be a simple, inexpensive way to upgrade. The addition of Matter, which should simplify the process of connecting to any smart home platform, is also something that would help push broader adoption of the technology.

“The Honeywell Home X2S’s price point and feature set make it the ideal upgrade from a non-connected to a connected thermostat, and Matter compatibility helps unlock other smart home benefits across other ecosystems,” said David Kaufman, director of strategic initiatives at Resideo.

In terms of competition, Google’s non-learning Nest Thermostat supports Matter but costs more at $129.99, and Meross just announced a Matter thermostat for $99. Both have more style than the X2S and rely on touch-sensitive interfaces rather than big buttons. Amazon has a similarly priced Smart Thermostat, but it only supports Alexa.

Aqara revealed the long-awaited update to its Video Doorbell G4 at CES this week, and it looks like it’s been worth the wait. The Aqara Doorbell Camera Hub G410 adds 2K video quality, a 4:3 aspect ratio, and end-to-end encryption on live and recorded video. It is also one of the first doorbells to use an mmWave sensor for more accurate person detection.

The G410 works over dual-band Wi-Fi and has Thread and Zigbee radios on board. So — yes — it’s a full-on smart home hub. It can connect to and integrate both Aqara accessories and third-party Matter devices into your smart home.

Aqara is also adding Real-Time Streaming Protocol support so you can send its feed locally to a third-party client such as Home Assistant. And this is all in addition to features carried over from the G4, such as Apple Home compatibility (including HomeKit Secure Video support), on-device facial recognition, local storage, and the ability to work on battery (six AAs) or be hardwired to your home’s wiring. When hardwired, it offers 24/7 continuous recording to a microSD card.

The doorbell also supports Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings to stream to compatible smart displays. It works with Aqara’s new Panel Hub S1 Plus, which can act as a video intercom inside your house.

Image: Aqara

There are a few disappointments, though. The field of view is wider than the G4’s, at 172 degrees on the diagonal, and it now offers a top-to-bottom 4:3 aspect ratio, but the G410 doesn’t have HDR imaging, which means it may be harder to see faces in some lighting. Its weather rating is still IPX3, meaning it really needs to be mounted under a porch or something similar to protect against heavy rainfall.

The doorbell’s smart alerts are limited to people and motion — there are no package, animal, or vehicle alerts (but you can get them through Apple Home). It also only records clips for up to 12 seconds at a time. Like the G4, the G410 won’t ring your existing chime and still requires that you plug in a small chime repeater to a nearby power outlet. This can house a microSD card for local storage.

The G4 offered free cloud storage, but the G410 will require a subscription. Local storage is free, though, and you can also use Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video service for recorded video. There’s no pricing or release date yet, but the G4 was $150, so this will likely land somewhere around that price.

I’m a big fan of different ways to control your smart home outside of using your phone or relying on voice, so I was very excited to see that Aqara is launching three touchscreen controllers at the CES tech show in Las Vegas this week — and one has a wheel!

The new Panel Hub S1 Plus, Touchscreen Dial V1, and Touchscreen Switch S100 can be installed in place of a regular light switch. They can control the existing circuit and wirelessly manage devices connected to the panel through the Aqara smart home app. This lets you — and anyone in your home — use touch to adjust lights, thermostats, blinds, and more without needing a phone or knowing the right voice command. The Panel and the Switch can also control Matter devices, exposing six wireless buttons to Matter.

Aqara is also launching new non-touchscreen smart switches that can connect over Thread or Zigbee. The Aqara Light Switch H2 and Dimmer Switch H2 come in several switch configurations and don’t require a neutral wire. The Light Switch H2 can also control Aqara’s wired smart lighting products, such as its T1M ceiling light, giving you an option for physical control that doesn’t cut off the device’s smart features. They’re slated for release in Q1 2025.

Image: Aqara

I first saw several of these products showcased at the IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany, last year, and now Aqara is debuting US versions. The Panel Hub works over dual-band Wi-Fi, has a 6.9-inch touchscreen with a 1440 × 720 resolution, and can be installed in a regular light switch outlet. It can connect to two lights on a wired circuit to automate them, including Aqara smart lights such as the T1M ceiling light.

The customizable display can show several widgets to control devices connected to an Aqara smart home, such as lights, locks, thermostats, and curtains, as well as trigger scenes and routines. It can also act as a display for viewing live camera feeds from an Aqara camera and as a video intercom for an Aqara doorbell — such as the new G410 Aqara Doorbell that’s also launching at CES.

A proximity sensor can turn off the screen when it’s not in use, and you can upload photos and custom wallpapers. The Panel Hub also doubles as a Zigbee hub for connecting the company’s Zigbee accessories like sensors and locks and can bridge those devices into Matter.

Image: Aqara

The Touchscreen Dial V1 is a compact tactile rotary dial that looks and feels a bit like a mini Nest thermostat with a 1.32-inch touchscreen inside. I got to play with the European version at IFA, and it was easy to swipe through the touchscreen to choose a device to control and then turn the dial for fine-tuned adjustments, such as dimming lights, adjusting a thermostat, or opening or closing curtains or shades. Unlike the Panel and Touchscreen Switch, the Dial is not Matter-compatible.

The Dial V1 can be wired to an existing light fixture. It has a temperature and humidity sensor and a presence sensor for screen activation. The Dial V1 and the Panel Hub will launch in Europe later this month and in the US later this year.

Image: Aqara

Finally, the Touchscreen Switch S100 US combines the physical and digital in one device. A smart switch with two physical buttons and a 1.3-inch touchscreen, the S100 can control an existing light fixture and wirelessly control smart devices and scenes.

Like the touchscreen on the Dial V1, you can use the touchscreen to dim lights or adjust a thermostat. Unlike the other two touchscreen devices, the S100 includes Thread as well as Wi-Fi and can work as a Thread border router and through Matter over Wi-Fi. Aqara hasn’t provided a launch date for the Switch.

Image: Aqara

If switches aren’t your thing, Aqara is launching a new smart sensor that can control your lights automatically. The battery-operated Presence Multi-Sensor FP300 packs five sensors: PRI, mmWave, light, temperature, and humidity.

A follow-up to Aqara’s wired mmWave-powered presence sensors, the FP2 and FP1E, the FP300’s mmWave sensing can detect presence in a room with precision down to someone’s chest rising and falling when they breathe. This should ensure your lights never turn off when you’re quietly working on your laptop or reading a book.

One of the first wireless mmWave sensors, the FP300 can operate on two CR2450 batteries for up to two years over Thread and three years using Zigbee and a connection to an Aqara hub, according to the company. (You can pick your protocol.)

Image: Aqara

The company also announced an updated climate sensor. The Climate Sensor W100 has the option of Thread or Zigbee and features an integrated display that can show room temperature, humidity, and more. Three wireless buttons can be programmed to control any connected smart device, including a thermostat.

Image: Aqara

Finally, Aqara is adding a new entry-level smart home hub, the Hub M100. The small device includes Wi-Fi, Thread, and Zigbee to enable connections for all of Aqara’s smart devices as well as third-party Matter devices. It can act as a Thread border router and a Matter bridge for Aqara Zigbee devices.

It’s a bit of a moment for the humble door lock. Schlage, one of the oldest lock makers in the US, just launched its first-ever smart door lock without a keyway. But that’s not the most exciting part: the Schlage Sense Pro Smart Deadbolt is the company’s first lock to support the new smart home standard Matter and one of the first ever to use ultra wideband technology (UWB) for hands-free unlocking.

Along with the Sense Pro, Schlage also announced a new entry-level smart lock. The $199 Schlage Arrive Smart WiFi Deadbolt does have a keyway, along with a push button keypad for the touchscreen-adverse. The new locks join the company’s existing Encode smart lock line.

Image: Schlage

While it’s nice to see a more affordable smart lock option from Schlage (its Encode deadbolts start at $274), the Sense Pro is the headliner. A radical redesign for the company, the new touchscreen lock has a completely smooth face and no keyway. While there are plenty of smart locks without keyways, this is a first for the 100-year-old Schlage. There’s also no fingerprint reader — a technology Schlage seems to have skipped over entirely.

Instead, it appears to be betting on UWB as the best option for seamlessly unlocking your door. Along with a numeric code and NFC-powered tap-to-unlock (similar to Apple’s Home Key), the Sense Pro can open automatically as you approach your door. Here’s how Schlage says it works:

This feature uses Ultra Wideband and the user’s paired and authorized personal device to intelligently calculate speed, trajectory and motion, ensuring seamless, intuitive entry that understands intent to enter and unlocks precisely as the user reaches their door.

Your phone or smartwatch will need to have UWB technology to support the hands-free unlocking, and Schlage said details on which specific models will be compatible with Schlage’s implementation will be announced closer to its retail launch.

While, initially, the lock will work over Schlage’s new Schlage Converge technology, Schlage has said that the Sense Pro will support Aliro. The open standard, which is due to be released this year, will add support for NFC and UWB unlocking across ecosystems and hardware. Theoretically, any Aliro lock will work with any Aliro-enabled smartphone — Apple, Samsung, and Google are all involved in developing Aliro.

Speaking of ecosystem support, the Sense Pro is Schlage’s first lock to work with Matter, which means it’s compatible with any Matter ecosystem, including Apple Home, Samsung SmartThings, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Home Assistant.

Matter support is over Thread, a low-powered, low-latency smart home protocol designed for battery-operated devices like locks. It should ensure the Sense Pro gets decent battery life, although the company hasn’t released details yet. Thread is used in the Schlage Encode Plus, but that model doesn’t support Matter. As with the Encode Plus, the Sense Pro will also work with built-in Wi-Fi to connect to the Schlage Home app.

Schlage says the Sense Pro will launch this year but hasn’t provided a date or price.

Image: Schlage

The entry-level Arrive doesn't have any of the bells and whistles of the Sense Pro, but it is Schlage’s first push-button keypad deadbolt equipped with built-in Wi-Fi. You can program up to 250 codes in the newly updated Schlage app or unlock it with a physical key. It also works with Amazon Alexa or Google Home — but there’s no support for Matter. Schlage says it will be available in late spring 2025.

Image: Schlage

Ring has announced a new partnership with fire safety brand Kidde to launch smart smoke and carbon monoxide alarms that connect to the Ring app via Wi-Fi and send alerts to your phone when the alarms are triggered.

The Kidde Smart Smoke Alarm with Ring ($54.97) and the Kidde Smart Smoke and CO Alarm with Ring ($74.97) are hardwired alarms with battery backup. They will launch this April at The Home Depot and come to more retailers later in 2025, according to Kidde.

Image: Kidde

The alarms connect to the Ring app and, as well as sending alerts when triggered, will notify you about a low battery to help avoid those 2AM chirps. But the Ring alarm can’t hush an active alarm, you’ll have to do that manually. If you have other compatible hardwired Kidde smoke alarms in your house, adding one of these Ring-powered alarms will enable your existing alarms to also connect to the Ring app.

Unlike the First Alert Z-Wave smoke and CO alarms that also work with Ring, the Kidde alarms do not need a Ring Alarm hub to connect to the app and don’t require a subscription to receive alerts. Ring will offer the option go 24/7 professional monitoring of the smoke alarms for $5 a month; if you already have Ring Professional Monitoring for your Ring Alarm, smoke alarm monitoring is included. (Ring also sells a $35 smoke alarm listener that can alert the Ring app if it hears an alarm in your home, which also requires a Ring Professional Monitoring subscription.)

Smart smoke alarms are critical devices, as they can alert you to danger at home when you’re not there. There really aren’t many choices on the market today. While Amazon, Apple, and others offer services through smart speakers and home security systems that listen for your existing smoke alarms and send alerts to your phone, actual connected alarms are few and far between.

Google’s Nest Protect is one of the best options, but at $149, it's very expensive. While it has some excellent features, including a motion-activated nightlight, voice alerts, and the option to silence the alarm from the Nest app, the product hasn’t been updated in several years. Google also doesn’t offer professional monitoring. First Alert’s OneLink smart alarm line has been discontinued. Kidde sells a stand-alone line of Wi-Fi-connected smart smoke alarms that work with its app to send alerts and integrate with Amazon Alexa and Google Home. According to Kidde, these new alarms will only work with the Ring app at launch and will not integrate with Amazon Alexa or any other smart home systems.

Buying a smart home product today means checking which ecosystems it works with by looking for the little “Works with Apple Home” or “Works with Google” badge on the package. Matter was supposed to get rid of those because if a product works with Matter, it should work with all the big smart home platforms. That hasn’t happened yet, and now we have one more badge to look for: the Matter badge.

Getting all those badges is about to get simpler for manufacturers, though. The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), which runs Matter, announced today that Apple, Google, and Samsung will all accept its certification for their “Works With” programs:

The Alliance is excited to share that Apple has begun accepting Alliance Interop Lab test results for Matter devices for Works With Apple Home, and that Google and Samsung will be doing the same for their respective Works With Google Home, and Works With SmartThings certifications later this year, underscoring the credibility and reliability of the Alliance’s testing programs.

This means device makers won’t have to put their gadgets through a separate testing program for each platform to wear its “Works With” badge. If they get certified as a Matter Device by the CSA, they can show their results to the other ecosystems and get those badges, too, without doing any more testing. This makes it much easier for device makers and gets us one step closer to just one badge to rule them all. (Notably, Amazon has not announced participation for Works with Alexa.)

The CSA also announced a new FastTrack Recertification Program and a Portfolio Certification Program that lets companies certify multiple products more efficiently. A complaint I’ve heard frequently from smart home companies is that getting devices certified and recertified by Matter when they make a change or an update is a laborious and expensive process that slows down their development work. The CSA says these two new programs simplify both processes and make them less costly and complicated.

SwitchBot, the company behind the ingenious robot finger that presses buttons for you, just debuted the closest thing yet to a real Rosie the Robot.

The SwitchBot Multitasking Household Robot K20 Plus Pro is a version of SwitchBot’s mini robot vacuum that attaches to a new “FusionPlatform” — a circular device on wheels that fits over the robot and connects to various SwitchBot devices.

Once attached via three mechanical claws, the robot pushes the platform around, enabling it to deliver items around your house, act as a security camera using SwitchBot’s pan / tilt cam, purify the air with the SwitchBot Air Purifier, or provide spot cooling with its fan. It can even carry your phone or tablet on a selfie stick, and SwitchBot says the platform will be compatible with third-party devices. The company also plans to add more features, including a mechanical arm.

Image: SwitchBot

The robot can do all of these tasks autonomously using automations set up in the SwitchBot app — such as “purifying the air upon entry into a room,” or you can control it using the app or with voice commands through Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri Shortcuts.

The robot navigates via a map the lidar-equipped device creates, and SwitchBot claims it has “centimeter-level accuracy in avoiding obstacles and navigating tight spaces” and “moves steadily and effortlessly over everyday barriers.”

The platform has various power ports, including USB-C, so, in theory, you can plug anything into it — although it has a weight limit of just under 18 pounds (8kg). SwitchBot says the FusionPlatform can work with “custom-made attachments, 3D-printed components, and third-party devices with multiple power ports for speakers, car fridges, or even UV sterilization lamps.”

Image: SwitchBot

A teaser image the company released shows a larger robot with the addition of a robotic arm, with an asterisk saying, “Mechanical arm is still under development.” There’s also the option of a combo base station for the K20 Plus Pro, which adds a stick vac, allowing you to summon the robot and do a quick touch-up with the handheld vac. If that mechanical arm ever comes to fruition, maybe the robot can take over this chore for you, too. That would get it a lot closer to its Rosie aspirations.

Image: SwitchBot

This modular approach seems smart, and while no pricing has been announced, it should keep costs down. Rather than spending years and lots of money developing a humanoid robot to try and mimic human actions, adding mobility to existing devices feels more achievable.

In use, it will involve more human interaction — you’ll presumably need to remove the air purifier and replace it with the fan when you want to cool off — but it also feels like something people will use in their homes. Without the ability to climb stairs, it’ll be fairly limited in my three-story home, but I’m still looking forward to testing it out.

Image: SwitchBot

Switchbot plans to launch the K20 Plus Pro in May or June 2025 in custom bundled kits for all the various functions — bundling the vacuum with a circulating fan to form the K20 Plus Pro Air Flow Kit, or the K20 Plus Pro Combo with the SwitchBot air purifier to make up the K20 Plus Pro Omni Clean Kit, or combining all of the above for the SwitchBot K20 Plus Pro Omni Ultimate Kit.

The S20 mopping robot vacuum gets some upgrades that matter

Image: SwitchBot

SwitchBot also announced the SwitchBot S20 Pro this week, which is similarly slated to launch in May or June. The successor to the S10, one of our favorite mopping robot vacuums, the S20 adds an extendable roller mop and side brush to help the robot mop and vacuum in harder-to-reach areas such as corners and along walls. The S20 also has 15,000Pa of suction power, up from 6,500Pa on the S10.

The SwitchBot S10 was one of the first robot vacuum mops to feature plumbing hookups, enabling hands-free draining and refilling of its onboard water tanks via a compact battery-powered water station. (It has a separate auto-empty charging dock). While the S20 is compatible with the water station, which doesn’t need an outlet so it has more versatile placement options, the robot comes with the choice of two all-in-one auto-empty base stations: one with a regular water tank you manually refill or one that can hook into your plumbing. The S20 also works with SwitchBot’s Evaporative Humidifier and can be programmed to automatically refill the humidifier when it’s out of water.

Image: SwitchBot

SwitchBot confirmed that the K20 Plus Pro (vacuum portion) and the S20 will support Matter over Wi-Fi, making them compatible with Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, and any other platform that supports robot vacuums in Matter.

Smart energy solutions company EcoFlow is debuting Oasis, its new AI-powered Home Energy Management System, at CES in Las Vegas this week. Designed to automate and simplify energy management, Oasis features an AI assistant that can answer and even act on complicated questions about your home’s energy using natural language, such as “How can I maximize my solar energy usage today?” The company also teased the upcoming launch of Ocean Pro, a new grid-tied whole-home solar battery solution for the US it plans to launch later this year.

Energy management is a key use case for the smart home, but the infrastructure is expensive, and it can be complicated to set up and confusing to manage. With Oasis, EcoFlow is tackling at least two of those problems.

Oasis works with EcoFlow’s home power technology to manage your home’s energy through real-time monitoring of your home’s solar energy production, energy storage to EcoFlow batteries, and energy use from third-party appliances and systems you connect to it through the EcoFlow app.

Image: EcoFlow

Peter Linghu, EcoFlow’s director of product strategy and development, explained that Oasis uses predictive analytics and automations to do helpful things automatically, such as switch to backup power in the event of a power outage or charge up your batteries if there’s a big storm coming. While these are features most home battery storage systems today offer, with Oasis, EcoFlow says it’s adding a more capable software layer to provide more granular whole-home energy management.

The EcoFlow Assistant, an AI chatbot in the app, can answer questions for you, such as “How much energy did I use today?” But it can also suggest, create, and set up automations to manage energy use across your home. For example, you can ask it to set up the best power backup solution, and it will present options it can then implement (see video). Linghu says it does this by analyzing data such as past energy usage, local electric rates, home solar energy generation, and weather patterns.

Oasis can also proactively offer suggestions, such as running your air conditioning or washing machine off stored energy rather than grid power when energy prices are high. Linghu says you can instruct Oasis to automate functions like this or choose to be notified about them and implement them yourself.

Intelligent management of your home’s energy can save you energy and money without you having to run around turning off lights, fiddling with the thermostat, and unplugging the EV charger. But a big hurdle is finding a system that can talk to everything in your home and to existing infrastructure like solar panels. You also need an energy provider that offers time-of-use rates and demand response programs to get the most benefit. Additionally, many solutions today only work with proprietary equipment, making them better suited to new builds rather than retrofitting into your home. EcoFlow’s approach is more open.

Today, Oasis works with EcoFlow products such as its portable Delta 3 Plus and River 3 Plus solar generators and its whole-home backup solution. Currently, that includes the Smart Home Panel 2, which offers circuit-level management of electrical loads and can be connected to your existing electrical panel. It can also work with the portable Delta Pro Ultra as a battery backup system.

The new EcoFlow Ocean Pro system that’s coming to the US later this year will bring a higher-capacity grid-tied option for whole-home backup. EcoFlow hasn’t provided many details but says it’s similar to EcoFlow’s PowerOcean system, which is available in Europe. It looks like it will be a direct competitor to popular products in this space, such as the Tesla Powerwall and Anker Solix.

Oasis also works with third-party devices such as Ecobee and Nest thermostats, energy-monitoring products like smart plugs from Shelly and TP-Link, as well as any Matter-compatible device. While Matter is still in its early stages when it comes to energy management, high-energy use devices like appliances, heat pumps, solar panels, and EV charging equipment are now part of the Matter specification. So, there may soon be more products that can integrate directly with Oasis. All this helps bring more devices into the system to get a clear picture of your home’s energy use.

Several other companies are working on this type of home energy management solution. Schneider launched its Schneider Home system at CES last year; Savant Power, Anker Solix, and Generac also have interesting products in this space. The initial cost is still a major roadblock for many people, but if the complexity can be reduced through intelligent home energy management software, that feels like a big step in the right direction.

Roborock has added an arm to its latest flagship robot vacuum. And this is no tiny appendage like the one the company debuted on its S8 MaxV Ultra at CES last year; it’s an actual articulating robotic arm. The arm rises from the middle of Roborock’s latest flagship bot — the Saros Z70 — and can extend out to pick up items such as socks and tissues while cleaning your floors. While it’s mildly terrifying and currently extremely slow — I can certainly see the potential in a robot vacuum that can clean up ahead of itself.

The Verge got a sneak peek at the Saros Z70 in action ahead of its launch at CES 2025 and can confirm the arm works as advertised, although, as mentioned, it’s laboriously slow. During our demo, it took about a minute to pick up and move each sock in its path. It’s also limited to socks, tissues, small towels, and sandals that weigh under 300 grams. Roborock says more items will be added over time but hasn’t promised increased weight capability. No pricing has been released, but the company says the vacuum will ship by June 2025.

The Saros Z70’s arm is “the first-of-its-kind mass-produced foldable robotic arm with five axis,” according to Roborock. Called the OmniGrip, it can unfold, extend, and twist horizontally and vertically to pick up items and move them out of the way. It includes a camera and LED light in the arm to see objects and has sensors that allow it to detect an object’s weight and know its positioning — including if there’s anything above it, so the arm doesn’t hit anything when it raises.

Roborock says that during its first cleaning run, the Z70 will detect and mark any objects it can lift. It then returns to deploy its arm, moving items to the area it has already cleaned and cleaning the areas those items were blocking. Finally, it can be programmed to go out a third time to pick up the items and put them away in a place you designate on the map in Roborock’s app, such as near a closet or in a basket.

Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge

Yes, this whole process will take a long time. Yes, it would be quicker (and quieter) to pick up the socks yourself (assuming you’re at home). But also, it’s a robot that picks up your socks! We are truly living in the future.

One intriguing feature Roborock says will come to the Saros Z70 via an OTA upgrade doesn’t involve the arm. Instead, it leverages the robot’s new navigation and obstacle recognition, called StarSight Autonomous System 2.0, to let you train the robot to recognize specific objects — say, a favorite teddy bear or your purse. According to Roborock, you'll be able to use its app to see where the robot last spotted that item, which could be handy for locating lost things.

StarSight launched on the Qrevo Slim and uses 3D time-of-flight sensors, RGB cameras, and machine learning to navigate and identify obstacles. The AI-powered machine learning allows the Z70 to detect and navigate up to 108 preprogrammed objects, according to Roborock. It also uses a new laser-powered obstacle avoidance technology called VertiBeam, which Roborock says can more accurately clean around extended cables and irregularly shaped walls and furniture.

Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge

Other Saros Z70 features include an impressive 22,000Pa of suction power, a dual anti-tangle system for the robot’s roller brushes, and dual spinning mops that can not only lift 2.2cm to avoid carpet but also automatically detach at the base station when mopping isn’t necessary.

The Saros Z70 is just under 8cm high, which should allow it to get under those low sofas, and has the AdaptLift chassis first seen on the Qrevo Curv. This helps the robot climb high room transitions and maneuver over high-pile carpets.

The flagship robot pairs with Roborock’s new Multifunctional Dock 4.0 to charge, auto-empty, refill and drain its water tanks, and maintain the mops with hot water washing and hot air drying; this model also introduces a 2.5-hour fast-charge feature.

Image: Roborock

Realistically, as cool as the arm is, it’s clearly more of a proof-of-concept product (although Roborock assures me it will ship this year). So, alongside the Saros Z70, Roborock debuted two other flagship robot vacuums at CES. The Saros 10R and the Saros 10 will ship on February 10th and cost $1,599.99 each. Both feature a similar slimline body and the same AdaptLift chassis as the Z70, and they can both automatically detach their mop pads when not needed.

The main differences between the two are in mopping and navigation tech. The Saros 10R has the same StarSight 2.0 navigation and obstacle recognition tech, the same mopping tech, and the same dock as the Z70. However, it has slightly lower suction power (19,000Pa).

By contrast, the Saros 10 is an upgrade to Roborock’s current flagship model, the S8 MaxV Ultra (our top pick for the best robot vacuum). With 22,000Pa of suction power, it uses the lidar navigation found on most Roborocks but can retract its lidar tower to fit under low spaces, bringing it to the same height as the other two Saros models.

Image: Roborock

Instead of the oscillating mops on the Z70 and the 10R, the Saros 10 has a new version of Roborock’s excellent VibraRise mopping feature. This uses a flat mopping pad that vibrates 4,000 times a minute to simulate scrubbing and can now soak dry stains before attempting to remove them.

The 10 also comes with an improved version of Roborock’s Reactive AI Obstacle Avoidance (version 3.0) and gets the new VertiBeam cable avoidance tech. It has Roborock’s new DuoDivide anti-tangle roller brush, first seen on the Qrevo Curv, and pairs with the company’s new Ultra 2.0 Dock.

Roborock says all three new models will be updated to support Matter 1.4, allowing the vacuums to work with any Matter-enabled smart home platform. It looks like Apple is bringing support with iOS 18.3, and Amazon Alexa and Samsung SmartThings already support robot vacuums through Matter. Out of the box, the robots are compatible with Alexa, Siri Shortcuts, Google Home, and Roborock’s own Hey Rocky voice assistant.

Samsung’s smart fridges will soon be able to identify when you’re running low on something and add items to your Instacart app so you can order what you need from the grocery delivery service right from your fridge.

Today, Samsung announced a multiyear partnership with Instacart that will let you shop for groceries from the screen on your Samsung Bespoke fridge — the 32-inch one or the one with the new 9-inch screen the company is debuting at CES this month.

According to the press release, the tech uses Samsung Vision AI food recognition technology to identify what you have in your fridge and determine what you’re running low on. Then, using Instacart’s product matching API, it suggests items from the service you might need and lets you order them from the fridge.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The service uses “AI Vision Inside” on Samsung’s fridges, which leverages a camera above the fridge door to see when you put items into your fridge as well as when you take them out. It also has cameras inside to keep an eye on what you have in there, although it can’t see items in the refrigerator door bins or freezer.

Samsung says the locally-based AI can recognize “up to” 37 food items including fresh fruits and vegetables. You can also manually input details of other items to your food list on the Samsung Food app on the fridge or on your phone.

While you can currently use Samsung Food to create a shopping list you can send to Instacart, this new feature should make that experience simpler and more automated. It should also automatically update your food list when you purchase items from the shopping list. And, when you make a recipe you've saved to the Samsung Food app, it can automatically remove items you’ve used from the food list and add then to the shopping list, working hand-in-hand with the AI-powered cameras to keep your fridge stocked.

However, how well this will all actually work in practice remains to be seen.

Funnily enough, the Instacart app used to be on Samsung’s smart fridges; although it wasn’t integrated with the device’s cameras in this way, it was just a standalone app. It also mysteriously vanished earlier this year, along with a number of other apps — at least from my 2019 model.

Samsung says the Instacart integration will come later this year via a firmware update to models with the AI Vision Inside, which arrived last year.

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There’s a new voice assistant in town, and this one can work locally in your home without phoning home to its corporate overloads. This week, the popular hobbyist smart home platform Home Assistant officially launched its first voice assistant hardware — Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition.

Built for the open-source smart home platform, Voice PE costs $59 and brings a locally controlled, privacy-focused voice assistant to Home Assistant in a plug-and-play package. Once connected to Home Assistant, you can use voice to control any connected device, with commands such as “Turn on the living room lights,” “Lock all the doors,” “Create a timer for 5 minutes,” and many more.

While Home Assistant users have been able to control their smart homes with voice using either Home Assistant’s Assist on less capable third-party hardware or through the cloud by connecting to third-party services like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, this is the first dedicated Home Assistant voice hardware product.

Voice PE is the culmination of Home Assistant’s Year of the Voice, an effort from Nabu Casa, the organization behind Home Assistant, to let users control their homes locally, privately, and in their own language. It currently supports over 50 languages, compared to eight for Alexa and 20 for Google Assistant.

Image: Nabu Casa

The Voice PE is a small white box, about the size of your palm, with dual microphones and an audio processor. An internal speaker lets you hear the assistant, but you can also connect a speaker to it via a 3.5 mm headphone jack for better-quality media playback.

A colored LED ring on top of the Voice PE indicates when the assistant is listening. It surrounds a rotary dial and a physical button, which is used for setup and to talk to the voice assistant without using the wake word. The button can also be customized to do whatever you want (because this is Home Assistant). A physical mute switch is on the side, and the device is powered by USB-C (charger and cable not included). There’s also a Grove port where you can add sensors and other accessories.

Speaking of wake words, out of the box, you can talk to Assist with the wake words “Okay Nabu,” “Hey Jarvis,” or “Hey Mycroft.” If you want to get fancy, you can program a custom wake word.

The assistant can run locally in your home without an internet connection on Home Assistant hardware (such as the Home Assistant Green hub), or it can use the Home Assistant cloud. According to Nabu Casa, the latter is faster and supports more languages. The company says your data is not stored on the cloud nor used for training.

For those who don’t like the idea of always-listening microphones in their home from companies such as Amazon and Google, but who still want the convenience of controlling their home with their voice, the potential here is huge. But it may be a while until Voice PE is ready to replace your Echo or Nest smart speaker.

The Verge’s Callie Wright, a Home Assistant superuser, has been testing the Voice PE for a few weeks. While they are impressed with its capabilities (although it had some trouble understanding them when there was background noise), they aren’t quite ready to kick Alexa to the curb. “I think Amazon’s Alexa is still worth the privacy tradeoffs for me just because there are key things for me that Voice PE can’t pull off,” they say. “But the progress Home Assistant has made in its Year of the Voice has been incredible, and I’m more hopeful than ever that that future is coming.”

While the intention is to surpass “Big Tech voice assistants,” Paulus Schoutsen, founder of Home Assistant, recognizes it’s not there yet. Hence, Voice is launching as a Preview Edition. “For some, the current capabilities of our voice assistant will be all they need, especially those who just want to set timers, manage their shopping list, and control their most used devices,” says Schoutsen. “For others, we understand they want to ask their voice assistant to make whale sounds or to tell them how tall Taylor Swift is — our voice assistant doesn’t do those things… yet.”

In the meantime, if you want more features, Voice PE can connect to supported AI models, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, to fully replace Assist or use it as a fallback for commands it doesn’t understand. But for many smart home users, there will be plenty of value in a simple, inexpensive device that lets you turn your lights on and off, start a timer, and execute other useful commands with your voice without relying on an internet connection.