Philips Hue Matter support was first promised by March of this year, before quietly admitting to a delay just a few days ahead of the deadline.
Whatever caused that delay has now been addressed, and Matter integration is now available within the Hue app …
What’s the Matter?
Matter is effectively a cross-company version of HomeKit. It’s a single standard that enables any compatible smart home device to be controlled by Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, Zigbee, and more.
The big advantage is that while only a limited number of companies chose to support HomeKit, the broader market for Matter devices means that almost everyone will support it. For Apple users, this is essentially a way to bring HomeKit compatibility to a much wider range of devices.
Philips Hue Matter now rolling out
Hue Blog reports that the update is now rolling out to existing bridges, and I was able to successfully update my own bridge this morning.
You do need to be using a Matter-compatible home hub, but that will already be the case for most Apple users.
Matter-compatible Apple hubs:
- Apple TV 4K
- Apple TV HD (4th generation)
- HomePod (either generation)
- HomePod mini
Additional compatible hubs are:
- Samsung SmartThings Hub
- Almost all Amazon Echo speakers
- Google Home or Home Mini
- Nest Hub, Nest mini, Nest Audio
How to update
Adding Philips Hue Matter support is a manual process, but a very quick and easy one, taking less than a minute:
- Open the Hue app on your iPhone
- Tap Settings, bottom-right
- Tap Smart Home
- Tap the + button, top-right
- Tap Other Apps
- Tap Matter
If you have ever upgraded from the original bridge to the second-gen one, you may find that the app rejects your account login, but the update will still proceed without it.
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