Feature request: Ability to select light effects using ModeSelect cluster (currently not supported on controller side)

[malicaeus]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Currently, when exposing a Twinkly (or any light that supports effect_list) to Google Home through Home Assistant, I can only change brightness and colors. However, I cannot directly choose a predefined effect (e.g. Waves, Miaka, Rosy Valentine).
This is frustrating because the main strength of these devices is precisely their custom effects, and having to open the Home Assistant app instead of controlling everything via Google Assistant/Google Home makes the experience incomplete.

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Describe the solution you'd like

I would like to be able to expose the effect_list attribute to Google Home so that I can select an effect by voice (e.g. “Hey Google, set Twinkly Line to Miaka”) or through the Google Home app interface.

This could work by mapping Home Assistant’s effect property to a corresponding feature in Google Home, similar to how brightness and color are already mapped.

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Describe alternatives you've considered

• Creating separate scripts/automations in Home Assistant to switch effects, then exposing them individually to Google Home as "scenes".
• Using voice commands to trigger custom automations (e.g. “Activate Miaka”).

However, these alternatives are more complex and less natural compared to directly selecting effects from the light entity.

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Additional context
Example of current entity attributes:

effect_list:
  - 0 Waves
  - 1 Wed. Day Blues
  - 2 Rosy Valentine
  - 3 Miaka
supported_color_modes:
  - rgb
effect: 3 Miaka
color_mode: rgb
brightness: 255
hs_color:
  - 30.622
  - 94.51
rgb_color:
  - 255
  - 137
  - 14
xy_color:
  - 0.598
  - 0.383
friendly_name: Twinkly Line 1
supported_features: 4

Having this attribute exposed to Google Home would make smart light integration much more powerful and user-friendly.

[Luligu]

Hi,
thanks for your interest.

I agree with you: it would be very nice.

Unfortunately in Matter there is no effect support at all, so I cannot do it.

But yes the solution is what you already considered: create an helper.

When all controllers will support "ModeSelect" cluster I will use it for this and many other features but at the moment they do not.

[malicaeus]

Thanks for your quick answer!

That makes sense, I wasn’t aware that the Matter spec didn’t support effects yet. It’s good to know that the ModeSelect cluster could eventually solve this limitation once controllers support it.

In the meantime, I’ll probably stick to the helper/scene workaround, even if it’s a bit less seamless than native support. Still, it’s reassuring to know that there’s a clear path forward for proper integration in the future.

Thanks again for clarifying, and for all the work you’re putting into this project—it really makes Home Assistant + Matter much more powerful!

[Luligu]

One day the ModeSelect device type and cluster will finally allow me to add all possible not Matter standard properties of a device like for example:

• Night Led ON or OFF
• Boost ON or OFF on some thermostat
  ... the list is almost infinite...

Home Assistant supports the ModeSelect, if you want to see it load the dynamic example plugin and check "Select" device.

[malicaeus]

Thanks for the detailed explanation! It’s great to know that ModeSelect could eventually open the door not only for light effects, but also for many other non-standard properties (like Night LED or Boost). I’ll definitely check out the dynamic example plugin with the “Select” device to get a better idea of how this works in practice.

Really exciting to see how Matter + Home Assistant could evolve to support all these features in the future—looking forward to it!

[Luligu]