What is Infrared?

Infrared (IR) is a wireless technology that uses invisible light to send simple commands from one device to another. It’s the reason your TV remote still “just works”: press a button, an IR LED flashes a pattern, and your TV responds.

In the smart home world, IR is a bit of a hidden superpower. Many everyday devices are already IR-controlled—TVs, soundbars, set-top boxes, fans, air conditioners, but they’re not “smart” on their own. With the right hub, you can turn those classic remotes into automations.

Infrared is made for short-range, line-of-sight control. That means it works best when the sender and receiver can “see” each other (at least roughly), and it won’t travel through walls the way WiFi does.

IR is also typically one-way communication: the device receives a command, but it doesn’t send status back. So you can tell a TV to turn on, but you usually can’t ask it “are you on?” in a reliable way.

How does infrared work?

An IR remote sends a pattern of pulses that represents a specific command. Think of it like Morse code made of light. Each button has its own pattern (power, volume up, temperature down), and the device’s IR receiver recognizes that pattern and performs the action.

Because many brands reuse similar IR principles but different codes, a smart home hub has two common ways to control IR devices:

• Using a known device profile (so the right codes are already available)
• Learning the signals from an existing remote (so Homey can repeat the exact commands)

Once those commands are available, they can be used like any other action in your home—triggered by time, sensors, routines, or even a single “Movie Night” Flow.

Because IR is light-based, placement matters. If your hub’s IR blaster is tucked behind a cabinet door, you may get missed commands. If it’s placed with a clear path to the device, IR control can feel surprisingly reliable.

Why infrared still matters in a smart home

Infrared makes it possible to upgrade what you already own instead of replacing it. That’s especially useful for "dumb" things like air conditioners, older TVs, or audio systems that still sound great but never got “smart.” These kind of devices are actually very automatable. You just need a way to send the same IR commands their remote would. That opens up fun, practical routines like:

• Turning on your TV and setting the right input when you start a movie night
• Setting your air conditioner to a comfortable temperature before you get home
• Lowering the volume automatically when you get a phone call or the doorbell rings

The big catch is feedback: if someone uses the original remote, your smart home usually won’t know what changed. That’s why IR works best when you treat it as “actions” rather than “states.”

Infrared with Homey

Homey can act as a bridge between your smart home and your IR-controlled devices, sending infrared commands on your behalf so those devices can join your Flows, alongside WiFi, Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Matter devices. That means your home can react as one system, even if some devices are from the “remote era.”

Depending on your setup, you can control infrared through a Homey Pro with built-in infrared support, or via Homey Pro mini, Homey Cloud of Homey Self-Hosted Server which require Homey Bridge for IR connectivity.

Infrared devices are typically added by selecting an existing IR profile or learning the correct signals (when supported).

Infrared vs Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Z-Wave

WiFi, Zigbee, and Z-Wave are two-way smart home networks: devices can often report their status, and they’re designed for ongoing communication.

Infrared is different. It’s closer to “remote control automation”: you send a command, and you assume it happened. That’s not a downside—it just means you’ll build automations a bit differently. For example, instead of “if TV is on,” you might use “when Movie Time starts” and have Homey send a set of IR commands in the right order.

Conclusion

Infrared is the classic remote-control technology that still runs a surprisingly big part of modern homes. With Homey, it becomes more than a button press: it becomes part of your routines, your comfort, and your everyday moments—without forcing you to replace devices that still do their job perfectly.

Want to bring one “remote-only” device into your smart home? Start with the one you use most—TV, AC, or soundbar—and build one simple Flow around it. Once you feel how nicely it fits into your day, the rest of your home tends to follow.

Smart home technologies and platforms supported by Homey

Smart homes often use multiple wireless technologies and platforms. As a powerful smart home hub, Homey supports a wide range of communication standards, including Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter, Thread, KNX, 433 MHz, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Infrared.

Homey also integrates with popular smart home platforms such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple Home. By combining multiple technologies and platforms in one system, Homey allows devices from different ecosystems to work together in one flexible smart home setup.