Zigbee has taken a big step forward. The Connectivity Standards Alliance has announced Zigbee 4.0, a major update to the long-running smart home protocol.
Changing the headline is a feature that many users have wanted for a long time. You can now add Zigbee devices directly from your smartphone without the need for a hub.
This upgrade brings Zigbee Direct as standard, allowing your phone to pair and control nearby devices using Bluetooth Low Energy. In practice, this means you can set up lights, sensors, switches, etc. even if you haven’t installed a hub yet. This is a welcome convenience for renters, first-time users, and anyone who has ever crawled under a cabinet looking for the network reset button.
But another major addition could have an even bigger impact. Zigbee introduces Sub-GHz and Suzi, an abbreviation for Zigbee. Traditional Zigbee devices operate in the congested 2.4GHz band, but Suzi-certified products will be able to operate at 800MHz in Europe and 900MHz in North America. These lower frequency bands travel farther and handle walls much better, making them ideal for outdoor sensors, sheds, garages, or long-distance installations where Wi-Fi and threads are often difficult.
According to CSA, Susie does more than just help around the house. Sub-GHz support is ideal for commercial and industrial spaces, locations with thick concrete, multi-level layouts, or large deployments where range and reliability are more important than speed.
Zigbee 4.0 also brings some quality of life upgrades across the board. Security is improved, data exchange between devices is more efficient, and battery life is increased for sensors that only need to communicate according to a set schedule. The certification process has been streamlined for manufacturers, and a new batch commissioning feature allows installers to set up large groups of devices at once. In practice, this means that electricians can install Zigbee bulbs throughout a new building before power is connected and then enable them in bulk, rather than manually adding them one by one later.
This update is backward compatible with Zigbee 3.0, and smart energy device products may be eligible for the over-the-air upgrade, but it is too early to know which ones.
While the Suzi certification program is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2026, the key improvements in Zigbee 4.0 are now officially part of the standard. Smart homes have been leaning heavily toward Matter and Threads in recent years, but this update is a clear reminder that Zigbee is evolving to stay in the game, not decline.
