Hue to Simultaneously Support Zigbee and Thread on the Same Bulb
Philips Hue owner Signify and wireless chip manufacturer Silicon Labs have announced a collaboration that will bring concurrent multiprotocol communications to selected Philips Hue smart bulbs. The update will allow compatible bulbs to support both Zigbee and Matter over Thread simultaneously on the same device. The move is intended to give users access to Matter’s wider interoperability while retaining the advanced features available through the Philips Hue ecosystem.
Matter has been designed to improve compatibility between smart home platforms, allowing devices to work across ecosystems such as Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings. Philips Hue, meanwhile, continues to offer features not currently exposed through Matter, including dynamic scenes, entertainment synchronisation, advanced automations, and other lighting-specific functionality.
With the forthcoming update, compatible Hue bulbs will be able to connect directly to Matter-compatible platforms for everyday lighting control, whilst remaining connected to the Hue ecosystem for access to these additional features.
CONCURRENT MULTIPROTOCOL TECHNOLOGY
The functionality is made possible through Silicon Labs’ concurrent multiprotocol technology, which allows Zigbee and Matter over Thread to run at the same time on a single wireless chip. Rather than requiring users to choose between Zigbee and Thread, devices can participate in both networks simultaneously, helping to bridge existing Zigbee installations with newer Matter-based smart home systems. The solution is based on Silicon Labs’ MG26 and SiMG301 wireless SoCs, which are being incorporated into selected Philips Hue products.
SOFTWARE UPDATE COMING LATER THIS YEAR
According to the companies, compatible Philips Hue bulbs are already available or are being introduced across the Hue product range. At present, users must choose either Zigbee or Thread during commissioning. A software update planned for later this year will enable concurrent operation, allowing supported bulbs to communicate over both protocols without requiring a choice during setup.
Thread support is nice, in itself, but the simultaneous Zigbee means that Hue is more incentivised to treat Thread as an on-ramp into its closed ecosystem than to work towards feature parity
Yes, you could be right. I think it’s also worth bearing in mind that Hue must be struggling of late with a lot of cheaper competition (eg Govee), and are desperate to find a differentiator for their products.