After covering smart home devices over the past four years, one of the most common questions I get is to explain smart home connectivity protocols, like Matter, in ways that non-tech-savvy people can understand.

While Matter is a connectivity protocol that determines which language your smart home devices speak, Zigbee and Thread are wireless protocols that govern how your devices interact.

Unlike Matter, which is a connectivity protocol, Thread and Zigbee are networks. With Thread, you create a mesh network of low-power devices that you can connect to the rest of your smart home using border routers.

Thread is a low-power mesh network built for modern IP-based networking. It delivers fast responses because devices communicate more directly and efficiently. Thread networks are self-healing, helping you experience fewer random disconnects than with older protocols like Zigbee.