What is Matter?
Matter is a smart home standard, designed to free your smart home. Have you ever been confused into a state of despair in your local Home Depot? Or felt trapped into an ecosystem based on a previous purchase? Matter is looking to fix this, and product manufacturers like us are getting onboard. Matter will ensure all products sporting the Matter logo will work with each other and empower you, the smart homeowner.
This is great for competition and will drive innovation across the smart home industry, as you will be able to choose the products you want and not feel locked into a specific brand or technology.
It is also great for a company like us, who for years have built complex integrations with various third parties. Now with Matter, we can build a feature once and make it available to all Matter devices. That means more time making the best colored lights in the world and less time troubleshooting bugs.
So no more tearing your hair out in the smart home aisle and messaging your buddy Jake who works in “tech” to check if this will work. Just look for the Matter logo on the packaging and you’re all set to get your lights strobing when your Saturday playlist hits.
When will I be able to buy LIFX devices that support Matter out of the box?
You can already buy them today. In 2024, LIFX launched a new generation of devices that ship with Matter support built in. These products are clearly labelled with the official Matter badge, so you’ll know at a glance that they’re certified and ready to connect to your preferred smart home platform right out of the box.
Our Matter-enabled range is expanding, so over time you’ll see more options across bulbs, downlights, and lightstrips. At the same time, we continue to support our existing non-Matter products through the LIFX app and integrations like Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomeKit. This means whether you choose the latest Matter devices or our earlier models, you’ll still get the vibrant colors, brightness, and quality LIFX is known for.
Why is LIFX still selling products without Matter support?
LIFX now offers a growing range of Matter-enabled products that work seamlessly with the latest smart home platforms. However, some of our earlier models were developed before Matter was available and therefore don’t support it. These products will continue to be sold and supported.
Will existing LIFX devices be updated to support Matter? Update (June 20th 2024)
We are working to provide Matter firmware updates to all existing LIFX devices that are capable of supporting it. Matter is more resource intensive, so we haven't been able to get this working on all device types. We are planning to provide updates to the following devices over the next few months:
- LIFX Beam (Generation 3 controllers only*)
- LIFX Lightstrip (Generation 3 controllers only*)
- LIFX Switches **
- LIFX Neon Indoor
- LIFX String
Due to the performance requirements and the heating considerations for LIFX Bulbs, we aren't going to be able to provide Matter updates for any of the existing LIFX bulb products. Across this year, we will be updating all of our existing range of products to a new more efficient chip that will be Matter capable. For the products that won't be getting an update, they will continue to be supported within the LIFX ecosystem and 3rd party ecosystems.
* To check if your Beam or Lightstrip has a Generation 3 controller, you can check the firmware version in the LIFX app. All Generation 3 controllers have a firmware starting with v3.
** To check if your Switch has a Generation 3 controller, you can check the firmware version in the LIFX app. All Generation 3 controllers have a firmware starting with v3. Please note: There is a small batch of Smart Switches sold in Australia & New Zealand that will not support the update. If your switches are part of this batch, you will not see an update option in the app for those Switches.