Nanoleaf finally launches a smart switch after eight years of trying

After nearly a decade of development, Nanoleaf’s smart switch is finally here. You can pre-order the $30 Sense Plus Smart Wireless “Anywhere” Switch today, and it should ship in October. But to get to this point, Nanoleaf had to pivot from its adoption of Thread and create a new, proprietary protocol called Litewave.

The battery-powered device brings physical control to Nanoleaf’s smart lighting system, allowing you to press a button to turn lights on or off, dim or brighten, or change colors. Plus, built-in motion and light sensors let the Sense adjust your lighting based on room conditions.

The Sense, a version of which was first announced in 2020 and then again in 2023, has been long anticipated by fans of the company’s RGB lighting line. As a wireless switch it doesn’t wire into a lighting circuit, instead it allows for wireless control of all the smart lights in one or multiple rooms without using voice or pulling out your phone. It’s a similar concept to Philips Hue’s wireless dimmer switch or Lutron Caseta’s Pico remote, and can also be mounted on a wall plate like a traditional light switch or used as a portable remote.

However, in addition to standard lighting controls, the Sense features two configurable buttons that can be programmed in Nanoleaf’s app or set up to work with Apple Home and Samsung SmartThings through Matter.

This lets you create automations with other devices to have, say, a “Movie Time” scene that closes the shades, dims the lights, and adjusts the thermostat with the press of a button. But, because not all Matter platforms support smart buttons yet, the Sense’s Matter integration is currently in an early access program.

The Sense uses two protocols simultaneously to connect with Nanoleaf’s lights. Matter over Thread and Litewave, a technology the company developed specifically for this product. A proprietary local protocol that works over the same 802.15.4 radio as Bluetooth/Thread, Litewave allows the switch to communicate with all Nanoleaf lights, whether they use Thread, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi.

According to Nanoleaf co-founder and CEO Gimmy Chu, finding the right technology to produce a reliable wireless switch experience has taken eight years. “We needed a low-power networking solution, like Thread, and we also needed a common communication protocol — like Matter,” he says. However, while the company is a big proponent and early adopter of Thread, it has struggled with its Matter over Thread implementation. This led it to develop the proprietary protocol to ensure its new smart switch would work reliably with all its smart lights. 

In an interview with The Verge, Chu attributes some of these struggles to the complexity of Matter and its multiple platforms. “We don’t have control over the Matter controller, which is responsible for making sure that things like pairing work correctly and that Thread network is being maintained correctly,” he says. “We needed to make sure that our products would work reliably with less dependence on the platforms.” 

Chu says Litewave provides a robust and reliable local connection that enables instantaneous control — as fast as flipping a light switch. “With it, we can simultaneously be part of the Matter over Thread mesh network and also support our communication,” he says. Litewave also doesn't require a Thread border router or Matter controller to work, making setup simpler for users. You only need those additional devices if you choose to enable Matter.

Over Litewave, the Sense controls multiple Nanoleaf lights immediately with no “popcorn” effect (where lights pop on one after another). Chu showed me this in action during our video interview: a dozen downlights turned on and off instantly as he pressed the button. “We’ve tested it with over 100 devices across 10,000 square feet, and everything is instantaneous with about 100 percent reliability,” he says.

In another shift away from relying solely on Thread, Nanoleaf is releasing its first Matter over Wi-Fi light bulb — all its current bulbs use Thread. The full-color and tunable white Essentials Matter Wi-Fi A19 Smart Bulb is developed for Walmart and costs $29.99 for a two-pack (you can also buy it at Nanoleaf’s webstore for $49.99 for four).

Chu says they decided to go with Wi-Fi because they feel like Thread is still too niche for the Walmart customer. “The mass market does not know what Thread is,” he says. “When launching into a place like Walmart, we wanted to make sure we were catering to as broad an audience as possible.”

Nanoleaf isn’t the only company hedging its bets on Matter over Thread. After several Thread-only launches, Aqara’s latest lighting products work with Thread and Zigbee — the protocol it used to connect all its devices prior to working with Thread. The company says it did this because Zigbee currently provides more features on its platform than Matter over Thread, and it wanted to give its users the choice. 

The just-released Thread 1.4 update is supposed to address many of the current issues, and as Matter develops, feature parity should arrive. But it will take a while for manufacturers to implement the new Thread spec. In the meantime, companies like Nanoleaf have little choice but to look for alternative solutions while Thread sorts itself out.