CES 2024: Amazon Unveils Matter Casting Standard as Interoperable Alternative to AirPlay

Tuesday January 9, 2024 7:10 am PST by Hartley Charlton

Amazon today announced Matter Casting, an interoperable rival to Apple's AirPlay feature, at CES 2024 (via Bloomberg).

Matter Casting will initially only support streaming content from Amazon's Prime Video app to Echo Show devices, but the feature will support Fire TV in the coming months. Later in the year, it will work across a range of other video services, including Plex, Starz, Pluto TV, Sling TV, and ZDF.

‌AirPlay‌ allows Apple device users to wirelessly stream video from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to an Apple TV or another Mac, as well as stream audio from almost any Apple device to any HomePod, ‌Apple TV‌, or compatible third-party speaker. Google has a similar equivalent for its Chromecast devices called Google Cast. Both ‌AirPlay‌ and Google Cast are proprietary technologies, so Amazon's new feature is designed to be interoperable across platforms.

Apple and Google worked with Amazon on the Matter home standard, but they have not yet announced any plans to support Matter Casting and could choose to remain uninvolved. Nevertheless, it is clearly Amazon's wish to make video streaming apps and TV accessories work together more seamlessly, regardless of their platform.

Tags: AirPlay, Amazon, CES 2024

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Top Rated Comments

brijazz

37 months ago

"Anything you cast will be interrupted by an ad every 20 minutes unless you give us an extra $2.99/month." - Amazon in six months, probably

Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)

clebingames

37 months ago

Some crucial differences in how The Verge present this.

MacRumors: "Amazon today announced Matter Casting, an interoperable rival to Apple's AirPlay feature"

The Verge: "Amazon, one of the founders of Matter, is the first to add support for Matter casting, a feature of the Matter smart home standard"

Elsewhere (Techhive): "The new open casting standard is called Matter Casting, and yes, it’s part of the Matter smart home standard. At CES this week, Amazon announced that it will roll out Matter Casting to Fire TV and Echo Show 15 devices."

Seems like sloppy wording at the top of this article.

Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Porco

37 months ago

The xkcd ('https://xkcd.com/927/') that never stops being relevant…

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

BuffaloTF

37 months ago

Forgive my cynicism, but I feel like Apple is only implementing the RCS as a means of staving off accusations of anti-competitiveness. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for them to implement another protocol (if they even can... this is proprietary I'd assume).

I have the opposite feeling here. Matter is in its name, but Amazon is the one to be cynical of here. All my HomeKit devices play nicely with Matter, I can control them with Alexa commands. Anything “Made for Alexa” though… no way to set it up to Matter. There’s a Matter section in the app, but it’s to add external Matter devices to its device list, not to connect it to the service to open up its devices to other assistants. Even 3rd party devices I linked to my Hue hub that were previously no bueno on Home are now there with Philips adding Matter. It’s not really inspiring confidence here.

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

WarmWinterHat

37 months ago

I'd rather there be a fully open, non-patented or proprietary casting protocol that everyone implements, on device, but Google and Apple don't want to let you out of the ecosystem. I don't see this helping too much. Matter doesn't seem to matter (ha) much, either, since it's not being implimented in a meaningful way.

We have Google Nest audio at our house... I can't send music with Apple Music, from my phone, to the device (I use Spotify now). I have an Homepod in my office, but my wife can't send music to it with her Pixel.

It's a garbage landscape, currently.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

wanha

37 months ago

Considering how badly the usability of AirPlay suffered from version 1 to version 2 (it used to be so simple and just WORKED), I would rejoice if Apple adopted/implemented this technology in their products.

As it stands, it's a pain point to not be able to easily stream content to a device that doesn't have AirPlay support, especially when I go to a friend's house.

Time will tell whether Apple considers AirPlay important enough to keep siloed, but I personally see that silo as more of a limitation than an advantage.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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CES 2024: Amazon Unveils Matter Casting Standard as Interoperable Alternative to AirPlay

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