Adaptive Lighting is coming to Matter smart lights in Apple Home
Nanoleaf confirms it’s testing the feature on its Matter-compatible smart bulbs for release with iOS 18 in the fall.
Nanoleaf confirms it’s testing the feature on its Matter-compatible smart bulbs for release with iOS 18 in the fall.
A major feature ofApple Home will soon work withMatter devices. With iOS 18, Apple is enablingAdaptive Lighting for smart lights connected to its smart home platform through Matter, theinteroperability standard developed by Apple, Amazon, and Google. The feature, which automatically adjusts the color temperature of smart lights throughout the day, currently only works with a few brands. Adding support for Matter bulbs means it should work with many more.
Gimmy Chu, CEO of Nanoleaf, confirmed toThe Verge that his company is currently testing the feature on its line ofEssentials Matter lights. “We are one of the partners that are part of the launch of Adaptive Lighting on Matter products,” he said in an interview. “For the past several months we’ve been doing extensive testing to ensure that the customers will have a great experience.”
This testing has led to Adaptive Lighting for Nanoleaf’s Matter products appearing in the iOS 18 betas, which is howThe Verge first saw it.Users on Reddit in the betas reported seeing the toggle to enable Adaptive Lighting on theirNanoleaf smart bulbs.
Adaptive Lighting is popular among HomeKit users. Its ability to automatically adjust your lighting color temperature throughout the day, turning lights from cool to warm to make your home feel bright and refreshing or welcoming and cozy, is an easy quality-of-life upgrade for your lights. It’s been part of Apple Home since iOS 14, but uptake among manufacturers has been slow — Nanoleaf andPhilips Hue were among the first, andEve andAqara also have compatible products. But that’s about it.
However, when Hue and Nanoleaf releasedMatter versions of their products (Hue by anupgrade to its bridge),Adaptive Lighting wasn’t available. Understandably, people were frustrated that the Matter products had less functionality than the existing products.
Chu explained that as much as Nanoleaf wanted to have Adaptive Lighting on its new Matter products, it wasn’t possible because Apple hadn’t enabled support for the feature in smart lights connected to its platform through Matter rather than HomeKit. (Hue users could keep Adaptive Lighting bynot upgrading their bridge to Matter.)
But now, when iOS 18 arrives this fall, all of Nanoleaf’s Matter lights will work with Adaptive Lighting in Apple Home.The Verge reached out to Philips Hue to ask if it’s planning to enable the feature on its Matter bridge; as of publication, we have not heard back.
What is Matter?
Matter is a smart home interoperability standard designed to provide a common language for connected devices to communicate locally in your home without relying on a cloud connection. It is built to besecure and private,easy to set up, and widely compatible.
Developed by Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung (andothers), Matter is anopen-sourced, IP-based connectivity software layer for smart home devices. It works over Wi-Fi, ethernet, and the low-power mesh networking protocolThread and currently supports most of the main device types in the home. These include lighting, thermostats, locks, robot vacuums, refrigerators, dishwashers, dryers, ovens, smoke alarms, air quality monitors, EV chargers, and more.
A smart home gadget with the Matter logo can be set up and used with any Matter-compatible ecosystem via aMatter controller and controlled by more than one with a feature calledmulti-admin.
Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, and Apple Home are some major smart home platforms supporting Matter, along with hundreds of device manufacturers.
While this is good news for Apple Home users with Nanoleaf products (and likely Hue ones, too), it’s also exciting for those with other brands of smart lights. “I believe that the vision for Adaptive Lighting is to be open to all partners that work with the Apple Home ecosystem via Matter,” said Chu.
That meansMatter-compatible lighting products, including those from companies like Govee, Lifx, Wiz, and Linkind, could also work with the feature through Apple Home. The more compatible products there are, the easier (and cheaper) it will be to use Adaptive Lighting throughout your home.
Adaptive Lighting is an Apple Home exclusive feature and is not part of the Matter spec. This means it won’t work in other Matter-compatible ecosystems, like Amazon Alexa or Google Home. However, the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the organization that runs Matter, has previously said that more advanced lighting features similar to Adaptive Lighting and the dynamic lighting effects companies like Nanoleaf and Govee use are on its roadmap. If that happens, then those would work across all compatible platforms.
- Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
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