Dutch smart bulb specialist shines light on new options
Innr has made a new Zigbee bridge that will connect Innr smart lights and those of other companies, including Philips Hue.
The Innr Bridge is a cheaper alternative to a Philips Hue bridge or a SmartThings Hub. It costs £34.99 (US price TBC) and will be available on Amazon soon.
While an obvious choice for those who have already bought Innr smart lights or who plan to try to spend less on smart lights, an Innr Bridge will also work with other brands’ Zigbee bulbs too.
Innr says it uses the same Zibgee protocol as Philips Hue, Samsung SmartThings and Amazon Echo. Up to 30 bulbs can be connected to one Innr Bridge.
That is significantly less than the 50-device official cap of the Hue Bridge, but still more than enough for many homes.
Need more? You can add another Innr Bridge, which doubles the capacity to 60 lights.
Thanks to the way Zigbee operates, a smart light setup using an Innr Bridge can continue function if your home internet or Wi-Fi goes down. It creates a wireless mesh system whose communication is separate to that of Wi-Fi.
Innr’s mobile app has already been updated to support the Bridge, and you’ll use this app to control your smart lights. You can set timers, fade-in effects for a smart light alarm clock, and devise scene presets, using Routines.
The Innr Bridge can be controlled through Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, covering all the smart light control essentials.
The Bridge won’t interface with Innr’s series of Wi-Fi bulbs, but this will make little difference in practice. Innr’s app now controls both its Zigbee and Wi-Fi series bulbs, effectively hiding the difference in technologies used.
We’ve also been given a peek at what’s coming in 2022. Innr is working on physical switches for your smart lights, remote controls and presence detectors.
Innr’s aim seems to be to have another crack at bringing people further into its smart home ecosystem, rather than just having them integrate its affordable bulbs into other platforms like Philips Hue.
However, until we have another test run with the Innr Bridge and its companion app, that’s likely what we would recommend you do.