When controlling multiple Aqara lights through Home Assistant, either via HomeKit or Matter integration, there’s a common annoyance: the “popcorn effect.”
This is when lights in a group turn on or off one-by-one in rapid succession, instead of all at once. The delay is usually visible and can feel unpolished.
This happens because Aqara’s native light groups aren’t exposed to Home Assistant — so many people create Group Helpers in Home Assistant to control multiple bulbs at once. But since Home Assistant sends individual commands to each bulb, the popcorn effect appears.
Fortunately, Aqara recently added a feature in their app that lets you export scenes through the Matter integration. If you create a scene that controls the grouped lights directly in the Aqara app, those lights toggle simultaneously without popcorn effect — and the scene can then be triggered in Home Assistant.
Step 1 – Create a Group in the Aqara App
- Open the Aqara app.
- Group your lights together (for example: “Office Lights”).
- This group will be controlled within Aqara’s ecosystem, which handles simultaneous toggling.
Step 2 – Create Two Aqara Scenes (On & Off)
- In the Aqara app, create:
- Scene 1: Turn on the grouped lights.
- Scene 2: Turn off the grouped lights.
- Make sure these scenes reference the group, not the individual bulbs.
Example:
- Office Main On – Turns all “Office Lights” on at once.
- Office Main Off – Turns all “Office Lights” off at once.
Step 3 – Sync the Scenes to Matter
- Go to Scene Sync in the Aqara app.
- At the bottom of the screen, tap Add Sync.
- Select your two scenes (“Office Main On” and “Office Main Off”).
- These will now be exposed to Home Assistant through the Matter integration.
Step 4 – Use the Scenes in Home Assistant
Once synced, the scenes appear as Matter scenes in Home Assistant. You can now call these directly — but to make them behave like a normal light switch, we’ll create a template light entity.
Step 5 – Create a Template Light in Home Assistant
- Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Helpers in Home Assistant.
- Create a Template Light.
- State Template: Pick one of the real bulbs from the group to determine the light’s on/off state. This returns
trueif that bulb is on, andfalseif it’s off.
Example:
- Actions:
- Turn On Action: Call the Aqara “Office Main On” scene.
- Turn Off Action: Call the Aqara “Office Main Off” scene.
- Save your template light.
Step 6 – Enjoy No More Popcorn Effect
Now you can toggle your grouped lights instantly through the Aqara scenes, all from Home Assistant, without seeing them turn on one at a time.
