Summary
- Ambient Sensing for Zigbee lights allows zone-based lighting setups with just a firmware update and no additional hardware.
- Philips Hue products may support Ambient Sensing, requiring at least three lights.
- Expect advanced features like motion detection sensitivity, but official release dates are currently unknown.
It’s an exciting time to dive right into a new smart home ecosystem, with the standardization we always wanted finally coming in through Matter. That doesn’t mean manufacturers and the creators of said standard have forgotten about older standards like Zigbee. Ongoing development behind closed doors has yielded a new feature for Zigbee-enabled smart lights, called Ambient Sensing.
As the name might lead you to believe, Ambient Sensing should take zone-based lighting setups that use the Zigbee standard to the next level, with presence sensing tech. Typically, this tech uses motion sensing hardware or a combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, with the latter seen more often on smart speakers which switch playback devices depending on which room you’re in.
The revelation comes from a new YouTube video uploaded by the Connectivity Standards Alliance that manages the Zigbee and Matter protocols, but it doesn’t delve into how Ambient Sensing will work (via HueBlog). It simply states you will need a firmware update to get started. While details are sparse, you could potentially have multiple Ambient Sensing zones in the same room, depending on the number of compatible smart lights installed and their power sources.
No additional hardware to start
Philips Hue lights could work too
Speaking of compatibility, it is nice to see how you won’t need any additional hardware to set this feature up. Moreover, several Philips products like the Hue Bridge and several other smart lights support the Zigbee standard. This means you can expect them to receive Ambient Sensing support as well, and HueBlog reports you’ll need at least three of these Philips lights in a room for the feature to work. However, Philips hasn’t officially stated interest in adopting Zigbee Ambient Sensing.
Advanced features like motion detection sensitivity should be available too, to help reduce instances of false positives and unwanted light activations. When all this might be available for your smart lights is still up in the air, but we are confident there’s room for this feature to become immensely popular if implemented right. Until then, Matter has you covered.
Related
Best Matter smart home devices in 2024
Create a customized smart home experience that works with Matter
