Point, Talk, Done: Matic Robot Vacuum Now Obeys Your Every Command
Zed Nation, get ready. The future of cleaning has arrived, and it doesn't need a foreign cloud to do the basics. Matic, the robot vacuum that has been turning heads, just dropped a major upgrade called Matic Cues. This means you can now simply point at a mess and the machine will suck it up, no app-drawing, no complicated remote, just pure Zambian ingenuity applied to a smart home device.
The update went live on August 13 at 2 pm ET and is available in the Matic app under Settings > Matic Cues. This comes just before a planned price hike on September 9, which will see the price jump from $1,245 to $1,495. For those of us watching the dollar, this is a big deal, but the tech inside is what matters.
How Does the Gesture Control Work?
This is the standout feature, and no other robot vacuum offers it. The founders, both computer vision engineers who worked on Google Nest cameras, have been developing this since 2017. You wake the robot with the wake word “Hey, Matic,” wait for it to turn toward your voice, then point at the mess and say “clean here.” Off it goes.
I tested it myself. If you want a smaller area cleaned, you need to crouch down to point. From standing height, it cleans a wider zone. It can even follow you. Say “Hey Matic, follow me,” walk to the mess, point, and it starts cleaning. This is on-device processing, using the robot’s five cameras, so it works without sending your video feed anywhere.
Why Is This Better Than Other Robot Vacuums?
Most robot vacuums force you to draw a zone in an app, which is imprecise and useless for quick cleanups. Others respond to voice commands, but they only clean the general area where you are standing. Matic’s gesture control is more focused. It understands what you want, not just where you are.
The built-in voice assistant also works smoothly. While Roborock, Ecovacs, and Narwal have their own assistants, I have had mixed success with them. Most require remembering exact commands. Matic uses the Gemini API to understand natural language. You can say things like “vacuum the inside of the carpet” to avoid the tassels, or “clean the toekicks in the kitchen.” That is the kind of command I want right after cooking dinner.
Does It Respect Your Privacy?
Here is where it gets interesting. Matic’s biggest selling point is that it does not require the cloud for basic navigation. However, voice control does need an internet connection. The “Hey Matic” wake word is processed on-device, meaning no ambient chatter is sent out. But any command after that goes to the Gemini API.
Mehul Nariyawala, cofounder and president of Matic, says the commands are anonymized. They chose cloud processing to support more than 75 languages. The company plans to bring the top 20 or 30 most-used commands on-device in the future. Matic Cues is opt in, and you can turn it and the microphones off in settings. That is a choice, and it is your choice to make.
Is It Worth the Money?
The trade-off between convenience and privacy is a constant tussle in the smart home. Roborock’s “Hey Rocky” is entirely on-device, but it is not intuitive. I have found myself using “Hey Matic” much more often because it is just easier to talk to. The gesture control solves a pain point I have struggled with for years: getting a robot to clean the exact spot I want.
For Matic users, this is a worthwhile update. For those considering buying, this is a new convenience that makes a very good robot vacuum even better. It is a tool that respects your time and your space. That is the kind of technology we can get behind.
Photo: The Verge