Leak Suggests New Philips Hue Lights Will Have Direct Matter Support

There’s already been a number of leaks of upcoming Philips Hue products that are expected to beryllium announced adjacent week up of IFA. But 1 point that hasn’t been mentioned was support for Matter-over-Thread. While there’s nary confirmation that support is coming, there’s compelling grounds to propose it mightiness be. 

First off, packaging for 2 unannounced bulbs appeared connected Amazon, pinch a Matter logo prominently displayed connected nan box. While Hue devices person been tin of connecting via Matter utilizing nan Hue Bridge arsenic a middleman, they’ve ne'er supported nan protocol directly. That’s successful portion because Matter only useful via Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Thread; Hue has been a Zigbee and Bluetooth-only ecosystem for years.

Then there’s nan since-removed FCC filing discovered by HueBlog. A expected screenshot of nan archive shows a explanation for a caller Hue White lightbulb pinch a Matter setup codification nether nan acquainted Bluetooth and Zigbee logos. This almost surely intends nan lightbulb will link straight via Matter. Wired Ethernet would evidently beryllium an overseas choice. Wi-Fi is simply a possibility, but nan much logical action would beryllium Thread, which is low-power and tin create self-healing mesh networks.

The 1 rumor is, there’s nary mention of Thread aliases Wi-Fi successful nan FCC filing anywhere, only Bluetooth and Zigbee. According to HueBlog, however, 1 archive publication (before it was removed), “This merchandise only supports BLE 125k/500k/1M/2Mbps:2402-2480MHz, Zigbee:2405-2480MHz. The different functions, bands and modes was [sic] abnormal to usage by shaper [sic] successful nan software.” What are those different functions, bands, and modes? It’s not specified successful immoderate archive I could find, but it’s reasonable to presume nan database mightiness see Thread which, for illustration Zigbee, uses nan 2.4GHz band.

Philips isn’t astir to wantonness Zigbee for Thread overnight, but this would springiness users nonstop entree to Hue bulbs from immoderate Matter controller, pinch nan Bridge only needed for immoderate precocious features, for illustration dynamic lighting effects. Plus there’s a increasing momentum down Matter-over-Thread, pinch Ikea precocious announcing complete 20 products supporting it.