Amazon has officially announced its support for Matter Casting, the video- and audio-beaming feature of the smart home standard Matter, on its smart displays and smart TVs. At CES 2024, the company revealed that it will be the first to provide compatibility for this technology.
While Amazon may not openly endorse AirPlay or Google’s media-casting tech, it has taken the lead in supporting Matter Casting. According to the company’s statement, Matter casting will soon be available on its Prime Video app for Android and iOS, allowing users to easily stream content to supported devices by simply tapping a dedicated button.
The first device to receive Matter Casting support will be the Echo Show 15, followed by Fire TVs (including Panasonic smart TVs with Fire TV built in) and apps such as Plex, Pluto TV, Sling TV, Starz, and ZDF later this year.
“Customers can now start watching their favorite movies and shows on their phone, and easily cast it to their compatible Fire TV device or Echo Show 15,” says Amazon in an official blog post. “This showcases an industry-first implementation of Matter Casting.”
Matter Casting is an open local networking protocol that can be implemented by any app and hardware maker, regardless of operating system or partnerships. This makes it a more accessible alternative to proprietary technologies.
In addition to Amazon, Matter is also backed by Apple and Google. However, these two tech giants have less incentive to adopt Matter Casting as their own casting technologies, such as Chromecast, are already well-established. In fact, Google recently announced that Chromecast will be integrated into all of LG’s new TVs, without any mention of Matter Casting.
The Matter Casting specification, which was heavily influenced by Amazon, has the potential to do more than just casting. It can also control a television’s core functions like volume adjustment, channel selection, and HDMI port switching. However, it is up to app and device makers to implement support for these functions.
