Matter is a smart home standard focused on promoting interoperability between the various competing home ecosystems from Apple, Google, and Amazon. A new report says smart speaker support is in the works for Matter, but theres a big catch regarding what this means for Apple users and the HomePod.New Matter speakers support would target certain products onlyToday The Verge reported that Matter is developing a new streaming speaker device type and related controls for its smart home system. This was confirmed by CTO Chris LaPr from the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which runs Matter.Before you get too excited about HomePods and Amazon Echos working seamlessly together, though, theres a key limitation coming.Even with the forthcoming streaming speaker device type, these popular smart speaker products wont be included.Instead, the feature is targeting speakers like those from Sonos, Bose, and others. Essentially, speakers that exist primarily to play music, not to control other smart home devices.Jennifer Pattison Tuohy writes for The Verge:Smart speakers like HomePods, Echo devices, and Googles Nest speakers areMatter controllers, notMatter device types. This means they connect to and control Matter devices in their ecosystems but cant be controlled by other Matter devices and ecosystems. This is why you cant use an Amazon Echo Show to turn down the volume on a Google Nest speaker or have your HomePod announce that your Matter-enabled washing machine is done.Its not all bad news though. This forthcoming integration could still be useful in bringing support for various third-party speaker systems into Apples Home app and Siri. If youre deep in the Sonos world, for example, or mix and match different speakers, Matter support should be a nice addition. It will at least make it easier to move between home ecosystem options.But its not the full dream you might hope for, with different smart speakers from Apple, Amazon, and Google playing nicely together in one smart home panacea.Does this new Matter speaker feature interest you? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments.Best HomeKit smart home accessoriesAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel