Why Doesn’t Nanoleaf Support Matter Yet?

In the Nanoleaf Live Event on September 5th, CEO Gimmy Chu confirmed why most of the Nanoleaf line of incredible lighting fixtures don’t support Matter yet. So what’s the reason?

Matter Doesn’t Support Dynamic Scenes

Nanoleaf’s “Essentials” line does, in fact, support Matter. That’s because it offers some very basic functionality: color and brightness. The newly announced Sense+ switch will also support Matter when it ships in November. 

But the more advanced lighting products like Nanoleaf Blocks or Panels have the ability to display some incredible dynamic scenes, like a shifting Aurora or sparkling night sky, where each panel of your custom display can have a unique color or effect applied.  

Unfortunately, in an effort to be the lowest common denominator to as many devices as possible, Matter doesn’t know about dynamic scenes. Officially, the Matter specification says that an extended color light should do:

• On and off
• Brightness
• Colors

Nanoleaf explained that they didn’t want to take features away from customers who set up a device using Matter. And that absolutely makes sense. 

Astute readers might notice that the Matter 1.3 spec included “Scenes” for smart lighting. Unfortunately, this isn’t quite the same thing, as it only means setting a color and brightness which can then be applied to one or more lights, rather than recalling a specific dynamic scene with unique characteristics. 

But Govee Lights Support Scenes, and Matter!

Govee takes a hybrid approach by allowing its lights to be controlled over Matter, but still letting you select scenes through the Govee app. In that case, the scene selection isn’t done through Matter, but Govee’s own proprietary Wi-Fi or Bluetooth control.

Nanoleaf takes a similar approach with its Essentials line. It recommends adding the device to the Nanoleaf app first to ensure updates are reliable; then you can add your device to Apple Home or other smart home controller from there. You can also add the device directly to your home ecosystem, without using the Nanoleaf app, and get roughly the same functionality. But it doesn't extend that to the more advanced Nanoleaf fixtures.

If Nanoleaf remains committed to offering direct ecosystem commissioning, it makes sense that they wouldn’t want customers purchasing an advanced lighting product, adding it over Matter, only to realize most of the features were missing. 

Nanoleaf Remains Committed to Matter

Scene support is in the pipeline for Matter, but it’s not yet in the latest specification—and even once in the specification, it takes at least a year for smart home systems to add support for the latest specifications. So we think this is a while away, yet. 

However, Nanoleaf also clarified that it’s dedicated to the Matter protocol—even though it just launched its own new protocol called Litewave for direct device-to-device control. Think of it as… keeping its options open?