You Can Now Control Your IKEA Smart Lights From Your Apple Watch

The Swedish furniture giant has gone Hüshenlippsen and hasn’t made much fuss about the new feature pushed to the IKEA Smart Home app when it updated on January 28: users can now control IKEA smart lights from their Apple Watches through the IKEA Smart Home app.

Previously only iOS and Android users of IKEA’s app could control IKEA bulbs, but an update rolled out to the Apple Watch’s watchOS shows several smart light functions in the sample screenshots provided by IKEA itself on the App Store’s page.

seen but not heard of

As Polly Allcock of Notebookcheck notes, “However, the change log does not note the new Apple Watch features. Perhaps it is in the final stages of testing and an official announcement will follow with the next update.

So despite the strange lack of fanfare from IKEA on its new feature, the screenshots show that people who have an Apple Watch (watchOS 10.6 or later only) and the IKEA Dirigera Hub (to control IKEA smart devices) can turn lights on and off, set wake-up routines that mimic the sunrise, and adjust bulbs’ brightness and colors.

You can also create “scenes,” such as a combination of customized lighting and your chosen music that you can summon whenever you like.

It’s a sick function to add to a smartwatch. I’ve argued here and there that cramming every function of a smartphone into a smartwatch rips away the cleanliness and intuitiveness that makes a smartwatch work. You only need relevant functions on it.

Tapping your Apple Watch to turn on the lights as you struggle toward your front door with an armload of groceries or checking that you turned all the lights off when you’re out for the night seem like top-tier ideas for a smartwatch, so it’s good that the Swedish brand let its smart-light customers finally come in from the cold.