2019-06-28

<em>— Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed's editors. Purchases made through the links below may earn us and our publishing partners a commission.</em>

While the offerings aren’t as robust as smart light bulbs that work with Alexa and Google Assistant, there are a growing number of Apple HomeKit light bulbs that work with your iOS devices.

With the best HomeKit light bulbs, any of your old light fixtures can become compatible with your Apple smart home—and you can control them using Siri via an Apple smart speaker like the HomePod Mini or the Home app for iOS.

After extensive testing, we are confident the best HomeKit light bulbs are the Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit
(available at Amazon)

, which continuously ranks in the top spot for its bright colors, simple setup, easy-to-use app, and ample versatility. However, we tested plenty of other HomeKit light bulbs for you.

The Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance bulbs offer some of the brightest and most vibrant colors of any smart bulb we've tested that works with Alexa.

Best Overall

Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit (Generation 3)

When it comes to the best HomeKit light bulbs, the Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit stands out among the bunch because of its bright and accurate colors, intuitive app, and a robust suite of features.

The third-generation kit offers some of Hue’s brightest bulbs to date. It also supports HomeKit’s Adaptive Lighting setting, a rare but valuable feature that adjusts the bulb's color based on the time of day.

The Philips Hue Bridge is required to use the lights when you’re away from home. While Bluetooth can control them, it will only work when you're near the bulb. If you opt for the starter kit bundle, it comes with a Hue Hub to start building out your HomeKit smart lighting setup.

Though Hue bulbs are more expensive than others in our guide, their reliability and performance are unmatched. For the best Apple HomeKit smart bulbs, you’ve got to go with Philips Hue.

Pros

Works with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri

Rich color palette

Easy setup plus an intuitive app

Cons

Requires a hub to work remotely

Buy now at Amazon

$199.99 from Home Depot

$175.00 from Walmart

Other Smart Bulbs We Tested

TP-Link Tapo Smart Bulb L535E

We love the TP-Link Tapo smart light bulb's value, ease of use, color options, brightness, and Matter certification. We experienced some difficulty connecting the smart bulb to Wi-Fi during setup, which took longer than other smart bulbs we've installed before. However, once we got it up and running, it remained connected to the network.

The LED bulb is controllable in the Tapo app or by voice using Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri. It's dimmable with a range of vibrant colors and tunable white lights. The 1,100-lumen bulb is brighter than most, which are about 800 lumens.

The Tapo app is straightforward to use. We also like that it offers energy monitoring—a small and simple way to see how much power your bulb is using. This is one of the best Matter-certified smart bulbs we’ve tested, and it’s a great option for the price point if you need a smart bulb that works with Apple HomeKIt.

Pros

Works with Matter

Easy to use

Bright

Offers energy monitoring

Cons

Connection problems during setup

$9.99 from Amazon

Meross Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulb Color Changing

The Meross Smart LED bulb offers stunningly bright and vibrant colors and works with Siri, SmartThings, Alexa, and Google Assistant.

It took seconds to integrate the bulb with Apple HomeKit before we had Siri turn the lights on and off, set the bulb to hot pink, and adjust the brightness to 75%. It only has a max lumen of 810, so it’s not as bright as others in our guide.

The dimmable bulb does not support HomeKit Adaptive Lighting, but if that doesn’t matter much to you, you’ll like this value-packed HomeKit smart bulb that still offers plenty of great smart lighting features.

Pros

Works with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri

Colors and tuneable whites

Good value

Cons

None we could find

$17.99 from Amazon

$22.99 from Walmart

Nanoleaf Essentials Matter a19

At 1,100 lumens, the Nanoleaf Essentials Color Changing Bulb is one of the brightest we’ve tested. With dimmable features and colors galore, it’s a great HomeKit light bulb for any area of your home.

One of the most notable things about the A19 bulb is its unique, multi-faceted design. The bulb also responds to Siri voice commands and works with Google Assistant (but not Alexa). Because it supports adaptive lighting, it can automatically adjust the color temperature based on the time of day.

It works with Bluetooth, but the real selling point here is the bulb’s Thread compatibility, which helps speed up response times between your Siri voice commands and Apple Home Hub.

Pros

Supports Matter over Thread

Good lighting features

Cons

App can be confusing

Some connectivity issues

Buy now at Amazon

$14.99 from Best Buy

$14.99 from Home Depot

$19.99 from Abt

Feit Electric Color LED Smart Bulb

Feit Electric makes a variety of smart bulbs, but this is one of the few from the brand that works with Apple HomeKit.
We had a frustrating time linking this bulb with HomeKit, but once we did, it was easy to control via the Home app, companion app, and Siri voice control.

The bulb offers millions of colors and tunable whites and is suitable for damp locations (most bulbs in our guide are not). The dimmable bulb is nice and bright but has an expected lifespan of 15,000 hours, below average for a smart bulb.

Pros

Suitable for damp locations

Works with Apple HomeKit

Color changing and tuneable whites

Cons

Difficult setup

Lower lifespan than other smart bulbs

Buy now at Amazon

$26.23 from Walmart

How We Test Smart Bulbs for the Apple HomeKit

The Tester

Hi, I’m Rachel Murphy, Reviewed’s home editor, and I’ve been covering smart home devices for several years.

I'm adding to the previous testing by Sarah Kovac, Reviewed’s accessibility (and former smart home) editor.

The Tests

To find out which smart bulb is best for Apple HomeKit, we bought the bestselling, highest-rated bulbs and tested them in a home with lamps and various light fixtures.

We tested each bulb using the Home app on an iPhone or iPad. We also tested the companion app for each bulb on iOS devices to see whether the experience was the same on both platforms, testing response times over the Wi-Fi network and data.

Finally, we tested each bulb with Siri to measure the bulb’s functionality and responsiveness to voice commands.

What to Know About Apple HomeKit Smart Bulbs

All About Apple Home Hubs

We tested the smart bulbs using an Apple HomePod (discontinued), but you can also use an iPad, HomePod Mini, or an Apple TV as a Home Hub.

An Apple Home Hub is required to control your HomeKit-enabled devices and run automations when you’re away from home using the Home app or Siri voice control.
The Apple Home Hub is the middleman between you and your devices, allowing you to control them remotely when you're not home.

An iPad, HomePod Mini, Apple TV, or the discontinued HomePod (if you have one) all work as a Home Hub.

The Home Hub must stay at home, near your HomeKit gadgets, to control them when you're away from the house.

How to Set Up Apple HomeKit Light Bulbs

All HomeKit devices have a scannable barcode with an eight-digit number unique to your specific device. This code is necessary to add your HomeKit light bulb to the Apple Home app.

To set up an Apple HomeKit bulb, screw it into a light fixture. Open the Home app on your iOS device > tap the plus sign icon > “Add accessory.”

Scan the barcode on the bulb in the Home app, enter the code manually, or wait for the accessory to appear (make sure it’s powered on).

If you have trouble scanning the code directly from the bulb, there's usually a second barcode in the instruction manual.

The Home app walks you through the final steps, but it shouldn’t take more than a minute or two to get your HomeKit light bulbs online.

Apple HomeKit Lighting Features To Try

A Home Hub is also necessary to take advantage of Apple’s adaptive lighting feature. This optional feature allows your bulbs to change color temperatures based on the time of day. It’s autopilot for anyone who doesn’t want to fiddle with their bulbs throughout the day, but you won’t find it on every HomeKit smart bulb.

The Home app offers other useful automations like turning the lights on when the first person arrives home and turning them off when the last person leaves.

Privacy and Apple HomeKit

There’s always a security risk when using internet-connected devices at home, but there are ways you can protect your privacy when using HomeKit devices.

Apple claims that all HomeKit user data is encrypted end-to-end locally (meaning on your Home Hub) before being transmitted to the cloud so that no one has access to it but you.

HomeKit's infrastructure uses iCloud, iOS, iPadOs, and macOS to "protect and sync private data without exposing it" to others, including Apple employees. To secure your account further, enable two-factor authentication and make sure your password is unique and hard to guess.

You can read more about Apple's HomeKit data security policy.

One thing to know is that Apple, by default, keeps your Siri voice interactions (one of the primary ways to control HomeKit accessories) and may review the audio clips to help improve Siri’s accuracy.

You can opt out of this and delete your Siri voice history. For more information, check out Apple’s Siri dictation and privacy disclaimer.

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