I’ve found past Aqara products, like the multipurpose security sensor, particularly useful, but at IFA 2026, the security company is swerving in an entirely new direction: smart lighting.
Entering the lighting world is a bold move for Aqara, but I’m not totally surprised. Showing off a suite of products that looks to confront lighting maestro Govee, Aqara wants to differentiate itself with several tricks connecting the lighting products back to its previous security specialties. Here’s what I noticed.
Read more: The Weirdest Tech We Spotted at IFA 2026
New lamps, LED strips and outdoor lighting
Aqara’s colorful floor lamp looks directly inspired by Govee products.Aqara
Aqara isn’t just dipping its toes into smart lighting at IFA — it’s unveiling a packed product line with entries for basically every part of the home. It takes most brands years to expand into so many areas, so a large launch like this is particularly unusual.
Indoors, Aqara is showing off both a standing lamp and table lamp, with a focus on multicolor options (through app control, of course). The standing lamp, for example, has 18 different zones to control separately or cycle colors through. The line will also include a smart downlight for low ceilings, plus a smart LED strip with 108 LEDS per meter — which sounds like a whole lot to me based on my past tests of LED strips.
Then Aqara moves outdoors, with a new outdoor string light product that has a broad color temperature range to mimic different kinds of natural light. The company is also planning to release permanent, weatherproof outdoor lights designed to stay under eaves and provide lighting year-round.
Hmm, where have I seen colorful, permanent outdoor eave lights just like this? Oh yes, Govee again.Aqara
I don’t have info on release dates or pricing for all these lighting products yet, but it’s immediately clear how similar they are to Govee lights, including the floor lamp and the permanent outdoor lights. It looks like Aqara is taking the smart lighting king head-on with this release, giving consumers an alternative that hasn’t been easy to find in past years.
Of course, seeing the products, even in person at IFA, can only say so much about their design quality and ease of use. I’ll want to test these new lines ASAP to get a better feel for how they, well, feel and to see how durable they are and if newcomers can easily adopt them.
Aqara sensor and switch support
Aqara’s products are designed to work easily with its security sensors, too.Aqara
Here, Aqara is taking a road less traveled by using artificial intelligence, diverging from Govee into what Aqara calls “AI-driven spatial intelligence.” That’s not as bland as it may sound: Aqara plans to connect its lighting to past sensors that I already like, giving them ways to work easily together. The approach also means you could use a previous security sensor for broader, more convenient purposes or connect more to an existing Aqara switch.
To this end, every lighting product Aqara announced will be compatible with Zigbee, Thread and Matter, which means it can also work with Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home, and so forth. In my experience with Aqara products, you typically get the most choices with Aqara’s own Aqara Home app, but there’s certainly flexibility here.
When connected to a large smart device ecosystem, like Aqara presence sensor or movement sensor, users can set rules based on what they are already using. A door sensor that gives you an alert when a door is opened can now quickly change an Aqara light to a different color or turn on an entry light to welcome someone home. Overhead lights can brighten when people enter the room, detected by Aqara’s presence sensor. And Aqara switches can control indoor or outdoor lights with custom routines at a touch.
You could connect other smart lights to Aqara sensors with Matter support before, but now that Aqara has its own lights, the process should be more seamless and open up new routine options.
A little bit of generative AI in the mix
Aqara is also adding AI and crowdsourcing assistants to the mix.Aqara
One of Govee’s points of pride — and I’ve seen it in other smart lighting like Lepro’s, too — is its many scenes and the ability to create new lighting scenes on the fly by using its generative AI lighting assistant with voice or text prompts, as well as downloaded images.
Aqara is again taking a page out of this book, debuting what it calls “Gen-Scene,” an AI ability to generate lighting scenarios. Aqara’s tool seems more focused on building entire scenes across home zones than simply creating color schemes. I’m interested in trying it out as part of Aqara’s whole kit.
The company is also introducing something more unique for planning, and I like the sound of it. Aqara showcased a platform called Aqara Builder, a gathering place for users to post their projects, inspirations and literal automation walkthroughs. I like the idea of crowdsourcing ideas like this, and we’ve already seen how so many people collaborate over platforms like Home Assistant to share solutions. If Aqara can create a similar community for its products, that would be a smart home win.
Tyler Lacoma
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