New $49 Elgato Eve Light Switch adds smart HomeKit features to your house’s existing lighting, no bridge/hub required (update: Eve Motion available too)

Update: The Eve Motion is also available now for $49. It’s a Bluetooth HomeKit motion sensor that can work in combination with the Eve Light Switch to create motion-controlled lighting. It will integrate with the Apple Home app and does not require a bridge or additional accessories, so the motion sensor can slot into to an existing smart home setup.

Elgato is expanding its range of Bluetooth HomeKit devices with a new standalone smart light switch, available from today for $49.95. The Eve Light Switch replaces the wall switches you already have in your house, to make the lighting in the room accessible to HomeKit without changing bulbs or buying bridges and other accessories.

The lights are then exposed to HomeKit via Siri or the iOS 10 Home app; simply use your voice to turn them and off. The lights are also controllable away from home if you have a third-generation or fourth-generation Apple TV to act as a hub for Remote Access.

As well as offering the smart HomeKit features, the Eve Light Switch is also nice on the aesthetics front. The switch is a simple white rectangle featuring a, single, large capacitive touch button. If you don’t want to use Siri all the time, you can simply tap the sensor to toggle the lights like always.

The Eve switch is installed into your home just like any other electric wall switch; unlike other solutions on the market, the Switch does not require an additional bridge or hub accessory to be setup. Refer to the official instruction video for full details regarding installation. Eve has also integrated with Philips Hue bulbs, to expose brightness and color controls where appropriate.

Compared to the rest of the HomeKit ecosystem, it’s a decent offering as a standalone, affordable, HomeKit light switch. Unfortunately, the one major downside of this product is that communicates wirelessly via Bluetooth Low-Energy, not WiFi.

In general, Bluetooth HomeKit accessories take longer to update and respond when controlled via the iPhone and suffer from range issues that WiFi accessories does not. The best WiFi HomeKit light switch setup is probably the Lutron Caséta, reviewed here on 9to5Mac, albeit it is a much more pricey proposition as it requires the purchase of their switch and bridge to operate.

The $49.95 Eve Light Switch is a quick way to add smart HomeKit-aware lighting into your home and has dropped just in time for the holiday gift season. Find out more on the Elgato Eve website.

The company also appears to readying another addition to the lineup, an Elgato Eve Motion sensor. The accessory has hit Amazon a bit prematurely, as it’s not yet official or available. Details are scarce: it looks like an official announcement of the Eve motion sensor will take place in November.