Jon Harros from the CSA talks Matter 1.6

On this week’s episode of the Smart Home Insider podcast, Jon Harros from the Matter governing body joins to talk through the latest release of the home automation standard.

Jon Harros is head of testing and certification for the Connectivity Standards Alliance, and he drops in on the podcast from Unify. Unify is the CSA’s first public-facing conference on the smart home and there were many announcements from the week.

We start the episode going through the news. The big release was the Schlage Sense Pro UWB.

This lock will be available to preorder by the end of June and supports Apple Home Key via UWB with Aliro later in 2026. With Aliro, it will also support Google and Samsung wallets.

There was a lot of new television news as of late. During the episode, we talk about HDMI 2.2, Roku, and Philips.

It appears the very first HDMI 2.2 devices will hit the market by the end of 2027. The new standard, with up to twice the bandwidth, will likely start with high-end TVs.

Apple TV is launching on the new 2026 Philips television sets. They are no longer running Google TV and can stream from the Apple TV app with Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and 4K.

Finally, Roku has agreed to be purchased by Fox. Fox will take over the hardware business which compliments its media infrastructure.

The bulk of the episode was dedicated to the new announcements from the CSA. Jon Harros explains the details in Matter 1.6.

Matter 1.6 has many changes, but the most notable is new NFC commissioning that doesn’t require Bluetooth or dedicated power, more context for thermostats, and a Joint Fabric layer for multiple ecosystems to use the same devices.

There was also the Product Security 1.1 release. This time it’s more about extending the security beyond the hardware to apps and software as well.

Links from the Smart Home Insider podcast

Those interested in sponsoring the show can reach out to us at [email protected]

Keep up with everything Apple in the weekly AppleInsider Podcast. Just say, “Hey, Siri,” to your HomePod mini and ask it, and our latest Smart Home Insider episode too. If you want an ad-free main AppleInsider Podcast experience, you can support the AppleInsider podcast by subscribing for $5 per month through Apple’s Podcasts app, or via Patreon if you prefer any other podcast player.