• Philips Hue are getting a new Sports Live feature for the World Cup
• It will sync Hue smart lights to the action during games
• You don't need any extra hardware, just the lights and the Hue app

As a long-time Philips Hue user, and a big fan of this brand of smart lights, I'm looking forward to trying out a newly announced Sports Live feature during the World Cup — as long as it doesn't signal goals before they've actually happened.

Philips Hue lights have long been able to change color and brightness based on what's happening on a TV screen, but you need a compatible television or an HDMI Sync Box to get the feature. With Sports Live the lights change in real-time based on "live match data", with no additional hardware required.

That's according to the announcement from Philips Hue parent company Signify. Apparently the lights will shift for "key moments" such as goals, yellow cards, and red cards, during the soccer World Cup 2026.

"Easy to set up and in time for the world's biggest football event of the year, soccer at home has never felt so real," says Signify, though it sounds as though the feature is only going to be available for this one upcoming tournament, which starts on Thursday, June 11. That's a disappointment.

No spoilers please

It's also going to be interesting to see how this works. The live match data comes straight from the web to the Hue app, so presumably you'll need to tell the app when you've actually started watching it – and give your smart lights a heads up if you decide to pause or rewind the action at any point.

I don't want to be in a situation where my smart lights are flashing to tell me England have scored (or conceded, which is perhaps more likely), while the action on my TV screen is still several seconds behind.

"The system allows users to fine-tune timings to account for minor broadcasting delays," according to Signify. "If users choose to pause the action, lighting effects are also paused and — upon resuming — sync to current, live match events for a consistent and accurate real-time experience."

Sports Live will support an unlimited number of smart lights apparently, and there will be a certain level of customization on offer: you'll be able to select your favorite team, and its main strip color will be used as part of the suite of smart lighting effects.

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Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.