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ZDNET Highlights
- Copilot.cx One IoT customer experience SaaS company that recently introduced Copilot Star.
- Star is a framework that integrates various smart home platforms for users.
- The system is designed to be used as a universal app framework for smart home manufacturers.
Matter, the smart home connectivity protocol that revolutionized the IoT world, has done wonders in bridging the interoperability gap between brands. However, for various reasons, Matter has not completely solved the incompatibility problem in smart home. IoT company Copilot.cx aims to change this by giving users access to devices from different brands from a single mobile app.
Copilot.cx introduces Copilot Star, a platform that enables creators to build A branded app based on a single framework, which connects smart home devices running on different platforms.
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I saw a demo of Copilot Star at CES 2026 in Las Vegas and the solution seemed promising. If you have a smart home, you probably know how annoying it can be to have three different brands of cameras, smart lights, and a thermostat. If they don’t support all that matter, it means dealing with multiple apps and messy integration. Think of CoPilot Star as a way to bring them all together with a single app.
Creators can create their own applications with Copilot Star to develop apps to control their devices. In turn, when users add new devices they can access each brand’s platform with a single CoPilot Star app, eliminating the need for multiple apps for different brands.
For example, if a brand sells a Matter-certified smart light, a non-Matter camera, legacy sensors, and a thermostat that uses a different cloud service, Copilot Star can bring all these products under a single branded app.
Also: The 13 Most Useful Smart Home Devices I Saw at CES 2026 (And Would Buy If Possible)
“Smart-home technology is booming, but fragmentation is limiting growth,” said Zvi Frank, CEO of Copilot.cx. “CoPilot Star is designed to simplify complexity – making it easier for manufacturers to develop products, easier for retailers to merchandise smart-home categories, and easier for consumers to control the connected devices in their homes. Our mission is simple: to democratize the smart home.”
Copilot Star aims to consolidate various cloud systems, including Tuya, AWS IoT, and proprietary stacks, into a unified platform for users.
According to Copilot.cx, for manufacturers and retailers, using the Copilot framework can lead to faster product launches, lower app development costs, and a simpler approach to combining and matching hardware supplies. This framework can also give businesses more control over customer relationships, as the user will be able to access the brand’s app, not someone else’s.
Copilot.cx is currently looking for partnerships and integrations with their systems.
How is Copilot different from Star Matter?
While Copilot Star and Matter both aim to address similar interoperability issues, they do so in different ways. Matter is a connectivity standard that determines how devices communicate with ecosystems, while Copilot Star is a framework that helps brands build and ship mobile apps across different ecosystems.
Too: Best of CES 2026 awards: Official list of winners (CNET)
As a connectivity standard, Matter defines how devices communicate, pair, and how ecosystems recognize and interact with devices. Matter enables a device to work with Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, and Google Home. Matter does not replace actual mobile apps used by consumers; Copilot can star.
