Zigbee is a term that comes up frequently in the world of smart lighting. But what exactly is it? In short, it is a wireless communication protocol. Many companies use Zigbee in their smart lamps, plugs, or LED dimmers.

Zigbee in brief

You could think of Zigbee as a type of WiFi: it is also a wireless connection that allows devices to communicate with one another. The difference, however, is that Zigbee is primarily intended for smart home connections. It is therefore a kind of standard that many companies use to enable their smart home devices to communicate with one another. Because Zigbee is specifically designed for smart home applications, it offers several advantages over WiFi.

The advantages of Zigbee

• All communication within the Zigbee protocol is two-way: devices confirm the "commands" they receive. This makes Zigbee highly reliable for smart home systems. It ensures that devices never miss a command.
• Zigbee is fairly standardized, particularly in lighting. This means that it is used as a kind of "standard" communication protocol for many smart home devices. Major brands such as Philips Hue and Google Home also use Zigbee, for example. This makes the standard not only extremely reliable, but also means that you can connect many Zigbee-compatible devices to one another.
• Another advantage is that Zigbee uses the same wireless frequency band as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth: 2.4 GHz. This means that devices can be easily certified and sold worldwide.

The disadvantage of Zigbee

The biggest disadvantage of Zigbee is that you cannot connect these products directly to your phone. Your phone is equipped with other communication methods such as Bluetooth and WiFi, but it cannot receive Zigbee signals. That is why you almost always need a smart home hub to connect your Zigbee devices, such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home. This is not the case with communication protocols such as Tuya.

You can pair our Zigbee dimmers with other Touchlink-supported hardware via Touchlink, without using a controller or hub. Examples include Touchlink remote controls and wireless switches.

Conclusion

In short, Zigbee is a powerful, energy-efficient, and affordable smart home technology. It is widely used for lighting by major brands such as Google and Philips Hue. In addition to lighting, you will also find it in sensors, switches, roller blinds, and other smart home products from various brands. And because the devices are more affordable, you can automate your home for less money. Many brands use Zigbee, but certainly not all of them. Therefore, when purchasing a Zigbee product, carefully check whether it is compatible with your current smart home system or the smart home system you plan to purchase. This way, you can be sure you will not face any surprises or unexpected costs.

Would you like to know which products in our online store work with Zigbee? Then take a look at our smart magnetic track lighting.