I have been a Philips Hue user for a number of years. They are rock solid, but they aren’t cheap. Recently, one of the bulbs in my hallway finally gave up the ghost. Instead of dropping $45 on a replacement, I decided to look at what the “Matter era” has brought to the table in terms of Wi-Fi only bulbs. I found a Matter-native option that costs less than $10 per bulb. It connects directly over Wi-Fi, requires no hub outside of a HomePod/Apple TV, and works with Apple Home right out of the box.
HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything to do with Apple’s smart home framework.
The benefits of Wi-Fi
The beauty of Matter is that it standardizes how these devices talk to our networks. This bulb is Wi-Fi based. The benefit is that you don’t need a Zigbee hub or a specific bridge plugged into your router. You just need your existing Wi-Fi network. It creates a direct connection that is fast and reliable.
The downside is that it only supports 2.4 GHz networks. This is pretty standard for smart home gear, but if you have a mesh system that aggressively pushes devices to 5 GHz, you might hit a snag during setup. In my testing, however, the onboarding was seamless. It has the Matter QR code printed right on the side. I opened the Home app, scanned the code, and it joined immediately. No third-party app required, no creating an account. Just power it on, scan, and you are done.
Automating your lighting
Once you have the bulb in HomeKit, the real fun begins. In the Home app, you can easily set up a “Time of Day” automation. I love having my living room and hallway lights turn on automatically at sunset. It makes sure I never walk into a dark house. It’s especially nice when we travel as lights are constantly coming on and off, giving the appearance that someone is home.
You can also tie these bulbs into Scenes inside of HomeKit. My most used automation is my “Evening” scene. With one command to Siri or one tap on Control Center, every light in the house turns off or dims to our preferred night scene. We have them set to go off automatically at 11:00 PM.
Finally, if you want to get really savvy, pair this bulb with a HomeKit motion sensor. You can set it so that if motion is detected in the hallway between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM, the light turns on at 25% brightness. This gives you enough light to see where you are going without blinding you or waking up the rest of the family. This is especially helpful in a hallway near kids’ bedrooms or stairs.
Wrap up
For under $10, you are getting 16 million colors and a tunable white range from 2700K to 6500K. Smart lighting is still the “gateway drug” to Apple Home for a reason. Being able to schedule your lights or control them with your voice is fantastic, but the real magic happens when you let the house work for you. With Matter ensuring that you can use whatever platform you want, there’s never been a better time to start swapping out your “dumb” lightbulbs.
You can buy this $10 Matter/Apple Home bulb from Amazon.
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