Hue Bridge Matter Update Will Expose Third-Party Lights to HomeKit
Signify, the parent company of Hue, will give the Philips Hue Bridge a Matter update in the first quarter of next year. However, interested developers can already try it out today. The integration into HomeKit via Matter brings a decisive advantage.
Matter has officially launched and over the last week numerous companies have announced updates and new devices. The Philips Hue Bridge has already received the Matter certification and is now awaiting the corresponding update, which should be released early next year.
With a developer account, however, Matter can be tried out today. If you also have Zigbee lights from other manufacturers, such as by Osram or Ikea connected to the bridge, these will also be displayed in Apple’s smart home platform after the update and adding them to HomeKit again, as reported by our colleagues from Caschy’s blog .
At this time, Homebridge is required for this feat, which could be complicated for many normal users. Since the Matter certification in the case of Philips Hue does not apply to individual lamps, but to the Hue Bridge, all devices successfully connected to the bridge also appear via Matter afterwards.
I’ve already paired Sengled RGBW candle bulbs, Seedan RGBW, and a couple Cree Connected to my Hue Bridge and they Pop right into Apple Home. Mr. Hubechev Tear Down This WALL!
These show in Apple Home as MATTER ACCESSORIES now thanks to the Hue Firmware update. No need for Homebridge or Hoobs or any other voodoo. Just pair and go!
Hmmm, very interesting and what I hoped might be the case and more.
It has been possible for a long time to add various Zigbee devices to the Hue hub but nearly all of them failed to be exposed to HomeKit. There is/was an Australian brand of Zigbee micro module which claimed to be fully exposed to HomeKit.
This development which I expected for Matter connectivity would be the case purports to expose any suitable Zigbee device to Matter and the referenced article states this will soon be true for full – real HomeKit connectivity as well. (There is still a small possibility someone is confusing the new Home app’s Matter support with HomeKit.) However if as would be logically and hard for Apple to avoid such a setup would work with the Home app via Matter there is little point Apple now preventing effectively the same setup via HomeKit especially when the Hue Hub already has official HomeKit support.
As such a Hue hub with Zigbee micro modules for switches and dimmers may finally deliver in the UK my holy grail of wired smart light switches with support for all three smart assistant platforms, along with things like being able to mix dimmers and switches side by side and also to support 2-way or 3-way staircase circuits.
I already have a Hue Hub so just need to get a couple of Zigbee micro modules to do some testing. I was thinking of the Samotech range although there seem to be many identical rebadged versions of these.