Voice commands to Matter devices

[MatterDev]

Hello Community!

We have successfully used both the ESP-IDF and Nordic SDKs, and their respective development kits, to implement light devices using Matter over Wi-Fi and over Thread. All devices are successfully onboarded by the Google Home app, and by the Apple Home App. They all respond to UI commands (on / off, dimming) from both apps. Changes made by the Google Home app (or by a Google Nest Hub Max) are readily reflected by the Apple Home app, and vice versa.

All Matter devices also respond to voice commands issued to Siri on the Apple's Home app. But, none of them, Wi-Fi or Thread, respond to voice commands issued to the Google Home app, or to the Nest Hub Max. In the screenshot below, "Ben", "Bill" and "Bob" - all Wi-Fi connected, not Matter devices, all with cloud to cloud integration with Google Home / Actions on Google - respond to "light on / off" voice commands, while "Brad" (Matter over Thread device, Nordic SDK) fails to respond ("doesn't support that functionality"). The same thing happens with Matter over Wi-fi devices.

Hopefully I am missing a setting? Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you

[sipriyadarshi]

Hello @MatterDev ,

If your example differs from the one mentioned in the SDK, you can try to reproduce using the following link  . 

Also, there should not be any changes in the behavior for UI and voice invocation. If they get any errors while setting or flashing the device they can also try a newer version (git checkout v4.4.2 and git fetch origin v1.0-branch).

[MatterDev]

Hi @sipriyadarshi thank you for your reply, but the link you listed leads to a 404 not found error, and the answer does not address the question that was asked:

>If your example differs from the one mentioned in the SDK

The example does not differ, I'm using the samples in the SDKs without change

>If they get any errors while setting or flashing the device

No errors at all, they flash and setup just fine, as the question states all integrations work well (Alexa also, since the question was posted), voice commands work with Siri and Alexa, it's just Google nest and Google home app that work with UI but not voice.

[sipriyadarshi]

Hello @MatterDev ,

I have update the link in the above comment. Could you see that link and try if it solves your issue ?

[MatterDev]

Hello @sipriyadarshi , thank you for your reply, but no, unfortunately it does not solve the issue, because it still does not address any of the points raised in the question, or in the reply to your previous suggestion.

Again, we are using the SDK's code unchanged, so pointing to the SDK code is not the answer. In addition, the ESP-IDF SDK current version is ESP-IDF 5.1 a lot more recent than version 4.4.2 used in the link you provided.

Most of all, I am looking for advice / suggestions from developers who have actually installed the ESP-IDF or Nordic SDKs, created Matter devices with these SDK, and who were able to issue voice commands to them using Google Nest, or the Google Home app.

[sipriyadarshi]

• You should have a hub and a phone. Then you should try voice and touch invocations from both the hub and the phone. Also, could you share the timestamp along with the time zones for the devices. Also, provide the project ID and vendor ID (VID) and product ID (PID) for their device.
• In addition, can you clarify one thing for us ? I see four devices in this screenshot, can you tell us the specific build system you used for each one of them (The SOC, cloud to cloud or matter, if matter wifi or thread.)
  • Eg: Bob - ESP32, Cloud-to-cloud 

           Ben - Nordic, Cloud-to-cloud 

[MatterDev]

@sipriyadarshi Going forward, please refrain from marking your own answers as Recommended Answer

>You should have a hub and a phone

The screenshot is from my phone, running the Google Home app, I also refer to the Hub Max 2 in the question

>I see four devices in this screenshot, can you tell us the specific build system you used for each one of them

As the question indicates, the only device using Matter is Brad, the others are commercially available devices. Quoted from the text of the question:

>"Brad" (Matter over Thread device, Nordic SDK)

@sipriyadarshi I understand you want to close this issue as solved, and claim points, but please refrain from replying unless you have: (1) read the text of the question, (2) implemented it yourself, and (3) ran into the problem yourself, and found a solution? Thank you in advance for your understanding!

[MatterDev · Accepted solution]

It turns out the Google Home app and Google Hub Max 2 fail to relay voice commands to the last Matter device commissioned into the Google Home account. Once another (commercially available) Matter device was commissioned, both the Google Home app and Google Hub Max 2 started successfully relaying voice commands to our Matter over Thread sample device, and failed to relay voice commands to the newly commissioned 3rd party device. Hopefully this behavior will eventually be fixed.