More Details Emerge on Yeelight’s New Matter over Thread Bulb

Yeelight has announced its own Matter over Thread 11W RGBCW smart bulb rated at 1300 lumens, due for release in the first quarter of 2026.

It’s the company’s first smart lighting product to support Matter over Thread, that mirrors their recent announcement of a new multi-protocol smart hub for 2026.

The new bulb includes five-channel dimming with red, green, blue, cold white, and warm white light, and is designed to be energy efficient. With Thread mesh networking and native Matter support, it should integrate seamlessly with all of the Matter compatible smart home platforms, offering quicker response times, improved stability, and wider compatibility.

• Matter over Thread Support: As Yeelight’s first lighting product to adopt Matter over Thread, the bulb offers streamlined setup and broad interoperability with all major Matter-enabled platforms, including Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings. Home Assistant isn’t explicitly mentioned, but can be presumed to be compatible.
• High Brightness and Energy Efficiency: Delivering up to 1300 lumens from 11 watts, the bulb provides bright whites and vivid colours suitable for a wide range of residential lighting scenarios
• Native Matter Integration: The bulb can operate entirely within Matter-supported smart home ecosystems without the need for a separate Yeelight gateway.
• Dual Connectivity Options: Although designed primarily for Matter over Thread, the bulb can also be paired with the Yeelight system via a Yeelight Gateway, unlocking the brand’s full suite of in-app functions and advanced lighting effects. This is presumed to be either with their existing Bluetooth mesh bulbs or, more likely, their upcoming Matter Controller and hub in 2026.

Whilst this is Yeelight’s first Matter over Thread device, it’s not their first to use Matter. The release of their modular Smart Cube lighting system was the company’s first device to use Matter over WiFi, although there was a rumour that these lights contain an inactivated Thread radio as well. You can check out our video review of the product below, or the written review HERE.

Earlier this year, the company also quietly released a budget version of the aforementioned Cubes, with the equivalent of four basic matrix cubes in one unit. The Yeelight Cube Lite still uses Matter over Thread, but only offers the matrix display option, although it’s relatively cheap at US$69.99 on Amazon.com.

This would seem to be the company’s response to Aqara’s first foray into internationally available smart bulbs with Matter over Thread support. Whilst the Yeelight bulb offers 200 more lumens that the aforementioned Aqara bulbs, the Aqara offerings do give consumers the choice to use either Matter over Thread or Zigbee, which isn’t the case with Yeelight’s new bulbs. There’s no word on pricing or the extent to international availability, but considering Yeelight’s previously attractive price points for smart lighting, it should be competitive.