YouTube/Signify
If your smart bulbs are acting strangely, you're not alone.
Some owners of Philips Hue bulbs have recently noticed their lights randomly turning to full brightness despite being set to dimmer levels, taking to social media to flag the issue.
One person wrote to the brand on X, formerly Twitter, complaining that the issue had been going on "for a few weeks."
@tweethue for a few weeks now my lights will randomly switch the full brightness... We use a hue bulb as a nightlight for my toddler and she has been woken up countless times as a result. Any word on if this is a bug that'll be fixed soon!?
— milan (@milan2552) July 8, 2024
Others have brought the matter to Reddit, asking for help with their rogue bulbs. One thread, titled "Lights randomly go up to 100% brightness," received multiple comments relating to the problem.
One person wrote in the thread that they had "tried everything" to fix the issue, including moving the smart bulbs to new lamps or outlets.
"Wife and I settled on ghosts and bugs," they said.
Well, impacted owners can now rule out one of those two things — Philips Hue's parent company, Signify, confirmed on Monday to The Verge that an "interoperability issue" is the reason, and a solution is coming within the next week.
"After extensive analysis, we have identified an interoperability issue with the Matter smarthome standard, in which random temporary radio traffic disruptions are incorrectly recognized as legacy switch power toggles, turning low brightness lights to full brightness," a spokesperson for Signify, Kate Helander, told The Verge.
Signify did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
It's unclear whether the issue lies with Signify or Matter, the smart home connectivity standard integrated with the Philips Hue Bridge smart lighting hub. Signify told The Verge that users can disconnect the Hue Bridge from Matter through their phone settings and their Matter controller app.
The company told the tech publication that only "a small percentage of users" have been affected by the bug and assured that a "permanent fix for the issue is in progress and will be rolled out within the next week."
So if your smart bulb is ruining your mood lighting, just know that help is on the way — you'll just need to wait a bit longer for your smart light bulb to receive a software update.