Silabs Arduino Library V5.0 has been released and now supports Zigbee!
The readme has information on how to create, build and test Zigbee devices.
Here’s a basic walk through - courtesy of Google Gemini.
If you have been holding back on building Zigbee projects with the XIAO MG24 because you didn’t want to dive into the steep learning curve of Simplicity Studio, there is some excellent news!
Previously, we were limited to Matter and BLE for Arduino development on this chip. But with this update, a whole new world of ultra-low-power smart home mesh networking has opened up right inside the Arduino IDE.
What’s Included?
According to the latest repository updates, the library includes standard stack components to get your mesh network up and running. When you update your core, you will find a dedicated Zigbee library alongside pre-existing features like Matter, ezBLE, and WatchdogTimer. [1]
How to Check It Out:
Open your Arduino IDE.
Go to your Board Manager and ensure your Silicon Labs core is updated to the latest version.
Once updated, navigate to File -> Examples -> Zigbee (under the Silicon Labs examples) to check out the initial implementation sketches.
Don’t forget to set your board configuration to the correct Zigbee mode (like End Device) depending on your project architecture! [1, 2]
This is a massive step forward for the XIAO MG24 ecosystem, making it a direct competitor for DIY Zigbee sensors alongside the ESP32 variants.
Glad to see Gemini write the press release for them, but celebrating Zigbee landing on an Arduino core in late 2026 feels a bit like throwing a parade because your car finally got a cassette deck.
A few realities to keep in perspective before crowning it an ESP32 or Nordic killer:
Massively Late to the Party: Espressif has had native Zigbee in the ESP32 Arduino Core since early 3.0.x (ESP32-C6 / H2), complete with robust endpoint examples, active community testing, and clean sleep modes. SiLabs is years behind on community wrapper enablement.
The “Wrapper Tax” & Ecosystem Lock-in: SiLabs’ SDK architecture has always treated third-party IDEs as second-class citizens. The moment you step outside the 3 basic library examples and need actual power profiling, custom cluster definitions, or multi-protocol dynamic switching, you get slammed head-first back into the walled garden of Simplicity Studio and EmberZNet boilerplate.
Silabs Series 3 is Still on the Horizon: While SiLabs has been teasing their 22nm Series 3 silicon forever, in the real world we are still running on Series 2 (EFR32MG24). Meanwhile, Nordic’s nRF54L and next-gen ultra-low-power cores are already physically out in developers’ hands, running rings around Series 2 active radio efficiency and sleep current figures.
Support Vacuum: When something breaks in SiLabs’ Arduino wrapper, community triage is practically non-existent compared to Espressif or the massive Zephyr / nRF Connect SDK ecosystem. You’re basically waiting on SiLabs to toss another binary blob over the wall.
It’s great that the MG24 finally has a toy wrapper for basic tinkering, but for serious, field-deployed ultra-low-power mesh nodes, SiLabs still has a lot of catching up to do. FYI…
PJ 