Happy holidays! Before we disappear into family time and catching up on our favorite shows, we have one more episode for you. And it's 90 minutes of deep nerdery about the smart home. Every year, we try to dig into one standard or spec that has impacted our lives this year, and we couldn't think of anything more potentially great and occasionally infuriating than Matter. Matter is supposed to be the protocol that makes the smart home work — so, uh, how's that going? The Verge's Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins to discuss the state of the smart home, before we play a game to see how well we understand things. Then, Home Assistant creator Paulus Schoutsen tells us what it's like to try and make Matter work, and where we might be headed next year.

Further reading:

• Matter: everything you need to know about the new smart home protocol
• Matter’s plan to save the smart home
• The Thread 1.4 spec is here, but it will be a while until we see any benefit
• What is Thread and how will it help your smart home?
• Every device that works with Matter (December 2024)
• Home Assistant’s next era begins now
• The Home Assistant Green is here to make the most powerful smart home platform more accessible

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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