Popular smart home platform will also be Matter compatible soon
The Flic Twist, which we first heard about in late 2021 when it hit Kickstarter, has officially gone live; reviewers (including The Ambient, of course) received their Twists a couple of weeks ago and are now allowed to start spreading the word.
We’re not quite done with our testing yet, so our review will be coming soon, but what we can tell you is that the Flic Twist is out of its crowdfunding state and you can officially pre-order it now, with shipping set to happen by the end of Q3 2023, aka the end of this month.
UPDATE: Flic Twist review
The latest controller from the Swedish smart home specialist adds dial around the smart button, thus expanding the amount of inputs you can program.
You interact with Flic Twist in two ways: pushing the button in the middle (single, double or hold) or by rotating the dial.
Turning a dial is much more intuitive and natural for certain control behaviors; think light dimming, volume / heat adjusting, blind positions and the like.
Turning the dial has two modes; Flic calls this smart dimming and advanced dimming.
Smart is simply where you select (in the Flic app) a setting you want to adjust on a particular device. Advanced dimming adds in a secondary aspect, so you can adjust brightness, color, or saturation simultaneously.
If you want to go Flic Twist ninja, you can even push and hold the button (dubbed Selector mode) while rotating the dial for extra functionality . The dial features 12 LED lights to show you just how far you’ve turned it up or down.
You can mount it on the wall using the included magnetic wall mount, or simply place it on a table or bedside surface.
It doesn’t need plugging in, it runs off of a pair of AAA batteries, with a 2-year battery life touted.
We at The Ambient are already huge Flic fans and users and the addition of that swanky dial takes what was already one of the top smart buttons to a vastly improved level.
Flic’s compatibility list is huge with big names such as Hue, Lifx, Sonos, Ecobee, Trådfri and Chromecast all supported. Gaps can also be filled with IFTTT, HomeKit, SmartThings and Alexa Routines.
The Flic Twist does need a hub to operate, and there’s also a new device on that front too. The Flic Hub Mini takes the Bluetooth LR skills of the previous-gen Flic Hub LR but is a much slicker circular design – seen pictured below with the Twist:
The good news is your old Flic buttons will also work with the new Hub Mini, and a Flic Twist will also play nicely with your Flic Hub LR (which boasts Ethernet, dual-band Wi-Fi, supports the Flic IR Accessory, wired audio, and supports the Flic Hub SDK).
The good news is that Flic is also part of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, and we’re told that the Hub Mini will act as a controller for the Matter smart home ecosystem in early 2024, via an OTA firmware update.
Pre-orders for Flic Twist are live now direct from Shortcut Labs. $79.99 / £66 gets you a single Twist and there are also 2-packs ($149.99 / £123) and 4-packs ($279.99 / £225) available too.
They come in two colors: Frost White and Matte Black and there’s also a limited edition black and white mix up version too.
The Hub Mini retails on its own for $40 /£33.
