Controlling each light fixture separately quickly becomes a tedious routine, especially if you have smart lighting installed throughout your apartment, and instead of opening the app and turning off five different light bulbs at bedtime, it's much more efficient to combine them into a single logical group, allowing you to control all the light in the room or even the entire apartment with a single touch or a voice command.
The process of grouping devices in the Xiaomi ecosystem does not require deep technical knowledge, but has its own nuances, depending on the communication protocol used (Wi-Fi, Zigbee or Bluetooth Mesh) and the chosen application. Proper group setting opens up access to advanced automation scenarios that make the house truly smart. In this guide, we will discuss all available methods for combining light sources.
Before you start setting up, make sure all your smart bulbs are already added to the application and are stable. If devices often lose communication or react with a delay, first solve the connection problems, otherwise group management will not work properly. Also check that all devices are in the same Home within the application, since combining devices from different houses into a group is impossible.
Preparation of equipment and choice of protocol
The effectiveness of group management depends on the type of connection your devices have. Xiaomi lamps and sub-brands like Yeelight can work over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Mesh or Zigbee. Understanding the differences is critical, because the communication protocol determines the speed of the group response and the load on the network.
Devices that run over Wi-Fi put a direct strain on the router. If you try to group more than 10-15 Wi-Fi lamps together, you may experience a noticeable on-or-off delay. Unlike them, Zigbee and Bluetooth Mesh create a mesh network, where each device acts as a signal repeater, providing an instant response for the entire group even with a large number of devices.
⚠️ Note: When creating mixed groups, where some of the lamps are running over Wi-Fi and some through the Zigbee gateway, the commands can be executed at different speeds.
To create a stable lighting system, it is recommended to use gateways for Zigbee devices, which take over command processing and unload the main router. If you don't have a gateway yet, but you have a lot of lamps, it makes sense to buy a compatible hub to transfer some of the load from the Wi-Fi network.
Check the firmware versions of all devices before you start setting up. Different software versions may interpret the group on commands differently. Update all lamps through the device menu in the Mi Home or Yeelight app to the latest available version.
Creating a group in the Mi Home app
The main control center for the Xiaomi ecosystem is the Mi Home app. This is where basic configuration and logical connections between devices are created. The process of creating a group is intuitive, but hidden in the control menu of a particular device or in the general settings of the house.
To get started, open the app and go to the device list tab. Select any lamp you want to include in the group. In the upper right corner of the screen, click on the three-dot icon... to enter the device settings menu. Find Group Management or Create a Group.
In the window that opens, you'll be asked to select other available devices to combine, the system will automatically filter out the inappropriate devices, leaving only compatible light sources, select the right light bulbs with ticks and confirm the action.
☑️ Pre-commitment verification
Once you've created a group, you've got to give it a clear name, like "Living Light" or "Kitchen Main," which is a name that's used by voice assistants, so avoid complex symbols. Now, when you turn on this group, all the lights you select will respond simultaneously.
Importantly, in the Mi Home app, groups are often tied to Rooms. If you move devices to different rooms, the group may break up or stop showing correctly. Try to keep logically connected devices within the same virtual room.
Setting up grouping in the Yeelight application
Yeelight users often prefer to use the native Yeelight app, which offers more flexible color temperature and effects settings than the standard Mi Home.
Open the app and click on the add-on button or select an existing lamp. In the control menu, find the Rooms section. Here you can create a new room and add multiple devices to it. Unlike Mi Home, grouping often happens through the creation of "Rooms," which function as groups.
One of the key features of Yeelight is the ability to create Flows for the entire group at once, so you can configure a smooth inclusion, color change, or imitation of presence for the entire group as a single object, which gives you richer possibilities for lighting scenarios.
| Function | Mi Home | Yeelight App | Google Home / Alexa |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creation of a team | Yes. | Yes. | Yeah (through rooms) |
| Adjusting effects | Basic | Expanded | Only on/off |
| Voice command. | Through assistants. | Through assistants. | Native. |
| Scenarios (Automation) | Inside the ecosystem | Inside the app | Through routines |
If you use both apps, remember that changes made to one (such as group creation) may not sync instantly or show up at all in the other.
What if the lamp is not added to the group?
Use of voice assistants for groups
The most convenient way to manage groups is to use voice assistants such as Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa or Yandex Alice, which allow you to create virtual rooms that automatically combine devices from different applications into a single logical group.
To set up Google Home, go to your home settings and select the option to create a new room. Call it, for example, "Bedroom." Then the system will suggest adding devices. Select all the Xiaomi lamps that are in this room. After that, the command "OK, Google, turn off the lights in the bedroom" will extinguish all the selected lamps at the same time.
The advantage of using third-party assistants is cross-platform, so you can group Xiaomi, Philips Hue and other brands together if they are connected to the same assistant account, creating a single smart home management system that is independent of the lamp manufacturer.
⚠️ Note: When using voice assistants, the delay in execution of the command can be slightly higher than when controlling through the local area network Mi Home, since the signal goes through the manufacturer's cloud and the assistant cloud.
For users of Yandex Stations, the process is similar: in the Yandex application, create a room device and add light sources to it. After that, Alice will understand commands like "Alice, turn on the light in the hall" and use the entire group of devices.
Automation and scenarios for lamp groups
The main power of grouping is revealed when you create automatic scripts. Instead of manually enabling, you set the conditions under which the group is activated. In the Mi Home app, go to Scripts (or Smart Home) and create new automation.
As a condition (if) you can choose:
- 🕒 Time: The onset of a certain time (for example, 23:00).
- 🚪 Motion sensor: activation of the sensor in the corridor.
- 🌅 Sunset/Dawn: Using geolocation and sunset time.
- 🔌 Disconnecting the device: turning off the TV or computer.
As an action (To), select a previously created group of lamps and specify the command to turn on, turn off, change color or brightness. For example, you can configure a "Cinema" script that, when activated, dims the light in the entire living room up to 10%.
💡
Use Delay in scenarios, such as setting a light switch off 5 minutes after you leave the house so that the lights don’t go on while you leave the driveway.
Complex scenarios can involve sequential action, such as when an alarm clock is triggered in the morning, a group of lamps in the bedroom can smoothly brighten to simulate the dawn, and after 10 minutes the lights in the kitchen turn on, which makes life more comfortable.
Solving synchronization problems
When groups are used, there is often a problem of desynchronization: one lamp turns on and another one does not, or they flash at different frequencies, most often due to unstable signal or overload of the communication channel, check the distance between the lamps and the router or gateway.
If the lamps are running over Wi-Fi, make sure they are not too far apart from each other and from the router. In larger homes, you may need to install an additional access point or Mesh system to uniformly cover the signal. For Zigbee networks, make sure the gateway is centrally located relative to all devices.
Another common reason is different firmware versions, so if you have lamps from different generations or models in a group, they may react differently to broadcast commands. Update all devices to a single version of software through the Update Check menu.
💡
The stability of the team depends on the quality of the network and the same firmware version on all devices. Regularly update the software to eliminate synchronization bugs.
In some cases, it helps to completely reset the problem lamp and re-add it to the group. Resetting usually requires quickly turning on and off the lamp power 5 times in a row until it starts to flash, signaling readiness to mate.