Flagship S8 MaxV Ultra gets Matter certification but that doesn’t really mean anything yet
Roborock has announced that the S8 MaxV Ultra has become the world’s first robot vacuum to receive Matter certification.
The certification was awarded by the Connectivity Standards Alliance “after extensive testing at the UL Solutions IoT Lab in Dongguan Songshan Lake.”
However, while it’s great that Roborock has come through the CSA’s testing unscathed, and earned that all important Matter certification, it doesn’t really amount to anything for users to get excited about right now.
That’s because, despite Matter 1.2 adding robot vacuum cleaners to the mix back in October, over six months ago now, there’s still no support from it for any of the main players driving the Matter smart home standard.
We’ve been told by a couple of sources that SmartThings is expected to allow the new Matter 1.2 device categories – which also includes air purifiers, dishwashers and fridges – by the end of June, although we’ve not been able to officially confirm that and there’s no ETA at all yet from Google, Apple or Amazon.
A Roborock spokesperson told us: “It’s a significant step towards enhancing compatibility with leading smart home platforms such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomeKit. At this stage, we are diligently working towards enabling full interoperability, but we do not have a specific timeline to share currently.”
Roborock announced that Matter was arriving on its latest flagship robot back in January, at CES 2024, but it was nowhere to be seen during our extensive testing for our Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra review earlier this month.
So while the Matter certification is a step in the right direction, the Chinese brand finds itself in the same boat as its country mate Ecovacs, who announced the Matter compatible Deebot X2 Combo at CES, but has also hit the market with no Matter action.
There are workarounds to this problem; SwitchBot recently added Matter compatibility to the excellent SwitchBot Hub 2, making it a Matter bridge to almost every device in its line-up.
However, using this method for he likes of the Switchbot K10+ and the soon-to-launch S10 comes with some limitations, such as the robots only appearing as on/off switches so offering limited features.
Matter too will be limited when it does finally arrive for robo cleaners – there’s no support for maps, for example – but it will make the whole automation aspect less clunky.