What is the procedure for setting up your lights with Matter

Setup your Hue Bridge with Matter: How to Upgrade to Amazon, Apple, Google Home, SmartThings, IFTTT, and Google Home

I have used the smart lights from the company for a decade. The company’s colorful bulbs, dimmer switches and motion sensors have been some of the most reliable smart devices in my home. The cost of the Hue stuff is due to it having a bridge and a zigbee mesh network so it doesn’t have to rely on congested wi-fi. Hue also works with every platform. I’ve had Hue lights working with Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, IFTTT, and more, often simultaneously, and it’s been rock solid.

However, there are one or two reasons you might benefit from upgrading to Matter. My advice is to stay out of it. If you’re determined, however, then check out my blog on how to set up your Hue Bridge with Matter.

To add a new device to a room, navigate to the Home app main screen, click on the Devices tab, then scroll to the bottom of the page, select the device you want, and add it. The bulb names should be translated from the app. There will be no switches or buttons, because Google Home doesn’t support them yet.

Note: Any motion sensors you have will come over to Alexa but as four separate devices: the sensor itself, then three separate sensors with default names for temperature, light level, and motion. Put them in the same group. Hue dimmer switches, buttons, and other remotes aren’t supported by Alexa yet.

Is My Hue Bridge Compatible with a Smart Home? Adding Lights to Google Home on Other Platforms is a Problem for Apple Home

Then, I tried to add them to Google Home. At first, the bulbs showed up, both named Bulb. The correct names appeared two days later but they had not been online or controllable with the Google Home.

I spoke with the companies from some of the platforms, as well as Philips Hue, to troubleshoot the issues. None of them could give me a clear answer for why it was happening. The problems almost solely occurred when I added a second platform to the mix, so it seems likely that Matter’s Multi-Admin is the culprit.

Now, my lights are slow to respond to voice commands. They frequently disconnect from my smart home platforms. I can’t change the bulbs in Apple Home. I’ve had to delete and re-add every single bulb and sensor six times while troubleshooting these issues. And I can’t get them to work on two platforms at the same time, let alone three or four.

I had only been able to get the bridge into one platform at a time for three months, and only for a few hours, because it would show unresponsive in the other platform. I never got it into three platforms at the same time so I gave up trying a fourth or fifth. Five is the maximum number of platforms that Matter will allow you to connect to.

You were limited to the maximum amount on one bridge only if you used other platforms, as Apple HomeKit only allowed for multiple bridges. You can use Matter to connect several bridges to platforms such as Amazon and Google Home.

The third-party bulbs are now exposed to the platform you pair to with Matter. This benefit only applies to existing setup of Matter because you now have more options for cheaper third-party bulbs that will work with every platform.

Apple’s Adaptive Lighting isn’t supported in Matter, so when you upgrade, you lose that function. Hue has its own “natural lighting” feature that has a similar function of adapting the light based on the time of day. Apple also has a version that works with non- Matter lights, but that will only work with the Hue bulbs.

Source: I upgraded my Hue Bridge to Matter, so you don’t have to

Reconnecting a Cloud Bridge with Alexa using Grassmann Variables: A Proposal and an Explanation

After trying this process several times, I eventually gave up and reconnected the bridge through the cloud using the Alexa skill, where it’s been working fine ever since.