Philips Hue Bridge Matter Support Update Now Available

[Jay-Jacob]

There seems to be no clear information. Which version of Hue bridge is on Matter? Apparently in Hue app says it be updated automatically? How am I know if I am on Matter or not?

 

[MikeX]

Switching lights on and off is terrible after the matter update.
If I use hue app and switch off all the lights in the living room : 1,2 seconds
If I switch off using apple home: 6,8 seconds. I see lights switch off one by one. very annoying.

I remember this worked instantly before. Did philips break something?

I tried grouping the lights in home app, still same. they turn off one by one. It is like somebody put Thread.Sleep(500); in the loop which switches off the lights one by one.

 

[Squuiid]

There seems to be no clear information. Which version of Hue bridge is on Matter? Apparently in Hue app says it be updated automatically? How am I know if I am on Matter or not?

If when you look at the bridge properties it shows the icon and a link to the Hue app then that is HomeKit. If that is missing as in the image below then it is Matter.
But agreed, it should be more clear! This is seemingly on Apple to fix though.

 

[Jay-Jacob]

If when you look at the bridge properties it shows the icon and a link to the Hue app then that is HomeKit. If that is missing as in the image below then it is Matter.
But agreed, it should be more clear! This is seemingly on Apple to fix though.

Ah I see thanks! Make sense but yeah should be clearer to tell difference.

 

[RoboCop001]

I’m not as familiar with Thread but from my understanding it operates on the same bands as Zigbee and therefore doesn’t compete with WiFi. The big difference is that while Zigbee is centralized to a hub Thread operates as a mesh network, which helps improve reliability by reducing the chance of there being a single point of failure.

Thanks! The biggest concern I have with a hub is, like you mention, having a single point of failure.

I think as long as my future devices use Thread, I'll be okay.

 

[scottlitch]

I've tried to remove the Matter version and reinstate the HomeKit version but have been unsuccessful. It doesn't show up as an option doing what others here said worked for them.

[UPDATE]
I had to press the button on the Hue Bridge to get the HomeKit instance of the hub to appear.

 

[MikeX]

I've tried to remove the Matter version and reinstate the HomeKit version but have been unsuccessful. It doesn't show up as an option doing what others here said worked for them.

[UPDATE]
I had to press the button on the Hue Bridge to get the HomeKit instance of the hub to appear.

How were you able to do it, possible to share a brief tutorial? I'd love to go back to non-matter.

 

[nanogirl21]

I just tried to redo mine and I got the same message. I even power cycled the bridge to no avail. What I did do was go into the Home app and try to add an accessory. Once I saw that Home found the Philips bridge I canceled and went back into the Hue app and only then was I able to complete the process. Once I readded my lights to the rooms I saw there was an update to my bridge.

I did that too but can't tell if I have the update yet.

The Hue Smart Home wizard wouldn't work.

So I re-paired the Bridge and set up the lights in the Home app.

Now I'm back in the Hue app but can't see an update. I had automatic updated enabled and can't tell if I was updated.

Do I have to wait for a Hue app update in the App Store first?

How are you guys pairing your bridge in the Home app? When I click Add Accessory it is asking me to scan a QR code. My bridge only has a number in the ___-___-___ format, but no QR code. I am extremely frustrated. When I try to use the Hue app I get the Matter Is Unavailable error.

 

[HQuest]

A beta version is never the same as the final product, as it is not polished. I would prefer getting feedback from people who tried the final version. Nothing personal, thank you for sharing for sure !!

A role in beta products is to go back and forth with some changes, trying and retrying things while the developers perform changes in their end. It is not like 6 months ago I converted to Matter and left that way forever. As a matter (no pun intended) of fact, the Hue bridge keeps the old HomeKit configuration in case you remove it as Matter and read-add it as HomeKit. So at least the rollback is less painful, and bonus points for them.

 

[Squuiid]

Anyone finding lights slow to respond, and sometimes status not updating in Home app?
I had HomeKit working perfectly prior to my update to Matter so I suspect it's Matter related unfortunately.

 

[powaking]

How are you guys pairing your bridge in the Home app? When I click Add Accessory it is asking me to scan a QR code. My bridge only has a number in the ___-___-___ format, but no QR code. I am extremely frustrated. When I try to use the Hue app I get the Matter Is Unavailable error.

Click on the "More Options..." then select "Enter code..."

 

[Neil Harrison]

Anyone finding lights slow to respond, and sometimes status not updating in Home app?
I had HomeKit working perfectly prior to my update to Matter so I suspect it's Matter related unfortunately.

My lights are now terrible! I had to change my network configuration so my hue hub was still using an old network configuration. This meant I had to reset in the hue app and reset bridge in home app. Configured lights easily enough but they are now horrendous. I have a scene that turns them off even though all are added some that are in a group don’t turn off. I set up the dimmer buttons that work when you test but when you use it does something different. Really annoying as it worked perfectly before.

If anyone can help would be so grateful…winds me up cos all my wife says is the lights don’t work! So they end up just using switches to turn them on and off which makes it all worse

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I'm not messing with this. Matter doesn't matter to me. 😅

I can control my Phillips lights with Google, Alexa, Siri, Bixby, and a Windows 11 app. Don't what none of that to mess up. Especially since I have some lights on automation.

My only issue is each assistant has it's own idea of what white is. Google does the best job at making the lights true white.

 

[Squuiid]

My lights are now terrible! I had to change my network configuration so my hue hub was still using an old network configuration. This meant I had to reset in the hue app and reset bridge in home app. Configured lights easily enough but they are now horrendous. I have a scene that turns them off even though all are added some that are in a group don’t turn off. I set up the dimmer buttons that work when you test but when you use it does something different. Really annoying as it worked perfectly before.

If anyone can help would be so grateful…winds me up cos all my wife says is the lights don’t work! So they end up just using switches to turn them on and off which makes it all worse

I found that updating to iOS/tvOS to 17.1 as well as Hue's bridge update released yesterday has helped. Things are almost what they were pre-matter.
17.1 is officially out on Monday/Tuesday. I'm running the RC on all but HomePods.

Philips Hue Support - Release Notes Hue Bridge | Philips Hue

Bridge release notes

www.philips-hue.com

 

[Neil Harrison]

I found that updating to iOS/tvOS to 17.1 as well as Hue's bridge update released yesterday has helped. Things are almost what they were pre-matter.
17.1 is officially out on Monday/Tuesday. I'm running the RC on all but HomePods.

Philips Hue Support - Release Notes Hue Bridge | Philips Hue

Bridge release notes

www.philips-hue.com

Have all that still no better. The lights are now switching to bright before turning off and my dimmer switches still don’t do what I have set them to..

It’s really frustrating. Wasn’t Matter supposed to make them better??

 

[Squuiid]

Have all that still no better. The lights are now switching to bright before turning off and my dimmer switches still don’t do what I have set them to..

It’s really frustrating. Wasn’t Matter supposed to make them better??

Yeah, I retract my statement. Having lived with it a bit longer the conclusion is that the Hue Matter implementation is complete and utter garbage.
I will be reverting everything back to HomeKit this weekend.

 

[Jay-Jacob]

Glad I stayed on HomeKit after reading all comments. I will be staying for while until Matter get sorted and it is new so will have issues.

 

[MikeX]

how can i revert this? any easy way?

 

[MikeX]

removed the Matter hue from home and readded using homekit mode. Much better and everything works.

 

[hawk2929]

removed the Matter hue from home and readded using homekit mode. Much better and everything works.

How did you do that? I have tried scanning the code on back of hub as well as look for nearby accessories and it still added it as "matter".

 

[MikeX]

You have to go to hue app and add but then not select siri/apple home, select other, which leads to putting the device to pairing mode and copying a pairing code. Then you can use Apple Home to add it via camera. There you can select to add the Homekit version.

How did you do that? I have tried scanning the code on back of hub as well as look for nearby accessories and it still added it as "matter".

 

[Neil Harrison]

You have to go to hue app and add but then not select siri/apple home, select other, which leads to putting the device to pairing mode and copying a pairing code. Then you can use Apple Home to add it via camera. There you can select to add the Homekit version.

View attachment 2325823

I did this and its still comes up as Hue Bridge, added the lights and they still work the same
Shows in Hue as linked with Home
Bridge still shows in Hue app as having matter support

 

[MikeX]

I did this and its still comes up as Hue Bridge, added the lights and they still work the same
Shows in Hue as linked with Home
Bridge still shows in Hue app as having matter support

Then maybe delete, restart all hubs, then try to add the other one and recheck. one shouldn’t be matter enabled.

 

[Neil Harrison]

Then maybe delete, restart all hubs, then try to add the other one and recheck. one shouldn’t be matter enabled.

May try that. That’s how I ended up with matter as I had to reset the hue hub as I had to reset network

Just becomes a faff to redo scenes and lights

 

[Neil Harrison]

Still having issues, tried everything mentioned..have emailed them. All my lights now turn on before turning off

I got this reply on Facebook

“ You can go back to HAP (the previous communication protocol), if you feel Matter isn't working fine for you. Just delete any link between Hue and Homekit, and relink only via the Apple Home app (not the Hue app).”

Never been able to add lights via home kit