When news broke in April that WiZ products would be coming to Matter, it was a huge benefit for Apple, the HomeKit ecosystem, and for HomeKit users

In fact, I believe no one is benefiting from Matter's rollout into the smart home world than Apple, as they have often been left out of cheaper products. Matter is an open smart home standard supported by Amazon, Google and Apple, allowing accessory manufacturers to be compatible with a single standard instead of three separate ones. HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything related to Apple's smart home framework. WiZ is one of those product lines that, once you go down the rabbit hole, gets you fully into the ecosystem. Their light bulbs are, in my opinion, some of the best on the market at the absolute lowest cost. I have friends who swear by them and will only use their lights. Honestly, I hardly pay attention to a smart home product until it works in HomeKit. I don't mind if some of the advanced features are tucked away in a manufacturer's app, but if they at least show up in the Home app, I know I can include those products in my automations. I recently purchased some WiZ lights to test them out and try out the Matter upgrade. Let's look at the overall process.

Installation process

WiZ has really completed the actual installation process with their light bulbs. You need the WiZ v2 app. I accidentally started with the v1 app and ended up having to go through a migration process. I'm glad I started doing that because it helped me understand what existing customers were going through. WiZ offers Sign In with Apple, so I connected my accounts and the light I had installed appeared. As you can see below, there are a number of preset templates that WiZ offers out of the box. This was by far one of the best experiences I've had with a smart bulb in terms of out-of-the-box functionality. It does a really good job of giving you a really nice out-of-the-box experience that other vendors should copy. It was one of those moments where I understood why WiZ customers are such big supporters of the platform!

Matter Upgrade

WiZ has done a good job of making it a simple process to start the Matter upgrade. It is located in the Integrations sections. I like the fact that the subject matter is central. My dream for the future is that a smart lamp only needs matter support, and EVERYTHING simply works with matter. Once you tap Matter, you will see your Matter-enabled devices (firmware 1.29 and above required). You then follow the process to load them into HomeKit. Currently Matter v1.0 only supports basic controls. It includes On/Off Change brightness Change temperature Change color Grouping For more advanced controls, you can of course stick with the WiZ app. My thinking over the years has been about the Home app versus the manufacturer's apps. In a dream world everything would be in the Home app, but there's no way to do that and keep it simple. Different products will have different functionalities. The depth of an app like WiZ allows the Home app to be simple and focus on scenes and automations. It really acts as the bridge between all your products.

Wrap-up

WiZ said all its lights and switches made between 2021 and today will gain Matter access. From everything I read, not all products currently getting Matter have this. Overall, I'm impressed with what WiZ can do, and the Matter upgraded lights are now some of my favorite products to recommend. I can't say enough how great the WiZ app is, and with a Matter upgrade they will work in your HomeKit environment too. Check out WiZ's Amazon store to get started. FTC: We use monetized auto-affiliate links. More.