They had been delayed, but at last it seems that everything is progressing as it should be and the first devices compatible with Project CHIP will arrive this year 2021 . Products that will make use of a new standard designed to change the experience in everything related to home automation. And it is that, from now on it should be much easier to achieve communication between smart devices regardless of the chosen platform.
Hello, Project CHIP
At the end of 2019, Project CHIP was announced, an initiative where Amazon, Google and Apple would be surrounded by around 170 more companies to build a new form of communication between smart devices.
This new technology or standard known as Project Connected Home over IP or Project CHIP would be based on three main technologies of which two are already known to all and the third has begun to take its first steps. It’s about Bluetooth, WiFi, and Thread.
About Bluetooth and WiFi it is not necessary to say much because they are things that most users use in their day to day and they are clear about what each of them are for, their advantages and disadvantages. Thread for its part is somewhat more recent, but it has already started to see the first compatible devices. Some of them with Apple’s HomePod mini, the new Google Nest Hub or the Eero routers among others.
Well, with this union of technologies and the consensual work of so many companies, some foundations have been defined that will allow smart home devices to understand each other in a much easier way and regardless of which platform was chosen at the time. .
That is, if you decide to mount all the home automation under the Google platforms and its Google Assistant, you will not have any problem if in the future you decide to jump to Alexa or Siri and Apple’s HomeKit. Because all you will have to do is get a speaker or device that allows you to control them through voice commands or your application. Well, that and migrating all the configuration, but nothing to buy new accessories such as Zigbee bridges or any other standard to avoid limitations.
So knowing all this, the interesting thing is that, after some delays that prevented its start-up months before, the first devices with Project CHIP will arrive during 2021 . So that desired unification in home automation will begin to be a reality and a great benefit for all those who try to make their home smarter and more efficient.
Goodbye to Zigbee and Z-Wave
Among the changes and improvements that Project CHIP will bring to home automation, two of the victims will be the Zigbee and Z-Wave standards . And yes, it is true that when it comes to home automation, they are usually the most recommended communication options between devices. Because they avoid saturations in WiFi networks, because they improve the range, etc.
Therefore, it might seem that Project CHIP is bad news if it possibly ends up eliminating these two standards, but do not be alarmist because it is something that its own decision makers assume. What’s more, the theory is that it will be more beneficial than both, and that they are already working to allow your old products to work seamlessly with your newer ones.
How they will do it is easy: through adapters that will allow devices that use different technologies to communicate. And yes, it is true that this is what Project CHIP is trying to eradicate, but for a few years we will have to live together until it is time to replace many of the connected devices that you may already have at home and are compatible with Zigbee (the standard that use Philips Hue or Z-Wave bulbs.
Whatever your situation is, what must be clear is that Project CHIP and Thread are going to mark a good part of the future of home automation and the connected home. So if you are interested, this whole world gets interesting.