Hot on the heels of a Google executive explaining how Matter will be the next big thing for smart home gadgets, Google has taken it further today and announced at Google I/O how Matter will work in its Home ecosystem and which of its devices will support which features. While Matter will only launch on Google Home sometime "later this year," Google has already clarified how it will work and how developers can utilize it.

As a reminder, Matter is the next-gen standard that is supposed to interconnect all the different smart home ecosystems through a standardized set of APIs, allowing you to control Matter-equipped smart home devices with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Siri.

Google explains that there are two sides to Matter support. For one, smart home devices like light bulbs and sensors have to be updated or released with support for the standard. For another, controller devices like Google's smart speakers will also need to add Matter functionality for everything to work seamlessly across different manufacturers. Matter works via Wi-Fi, but the standard also has a "Thread" mesh connectivity option that's separate from your home network, and you will need Thread mesh points or routers to use this standard properly.

The company is updating an array of its existing products for Matter in the near future. Google says that "Matter controllers will include the original Google Home speaker, Google Mini, Nest Mini, Nest Hub (1st and 2nd gen), Nest Hub Max, Nest Audio, and Nest Wifi." The Nest Wifi, Nest Hub Max, and Nest Hub (2nd gen) will additionally serve as Thread border routers, allowing you to connect devices further away from your home to your network, like backyard lights.

Once everything is in place later this year, setting up new smart home devices will be a breeze. Matter-enabled devices should offer a quick and consistent experience, allowing you to add them to your smart home network with a few clicks. Google claims that, thanks to Matter supporting Fast Pair on Android, connecting a new device with your smart home will be as easy as connecting a new pair of headphones to your phone. Matter devices also connect locally via Wi-Fi and Thread, so it looks like they won't rely as heavily on the cloud as other devices.

Google is additionally rolling out a new Google Home website that gives you an overview of everything you can do with its smart home devices, helping you get the most out of them. In the same vein, Google is updating its "Works with" partner program. It's rebranding the "Works with Hey Google" to "Works with Google Home" to clarify that it works across all the company's smart home efforts and not just its Assistant. The scope of the program remains the same, though. Devices that make it into it are all products that have been certified by Google to work well with its ecosystem.

For developers, Google will launch a new Google Home Developer Console on June 30. This includes a set of two new SDKs. The Google Home Mobile SDK will make it easier to create apps that directly connect to Matter devices, utilizing a new built-in version of Matter in Android. This is supposed to make the setup process for these devices and apps super simple for users. The Google Home Device SDK offers tools that make it simpler to build Matter-equipped devices. As part of it, Google will also introduce interconnectivity with its Home and Away routines for developers who meet security and privacy requirements, which could create some powerful setups.

The most exciting thing about Matter is that it will not only depend on Google. We will soon likely also see connectivity options and devices from competitors like Amazon and Apple that take advantage of it, making our disparate smart homes finally work as one entity.