Bought your self a elaborate Philips Hue smart lighting system? You then in all probability need to know learn how to get probably the most out of it, and that is the place our definitive assortment of suggestions and methods is available in.
From having your lights flash to report the climate, to controlling a Philips Hue system along with your voice, and even supercharging your home cinema setup, educate your self by discovering out precisely what your Philips Hue smart bulbs can do for you.
Examined, rated: One of the best smart lights
And make sure to try our Philips Hue tremendous information for extra useful hints on establishing and utilizing your smart lights.
1. Add a movement sensor
Splash out on a Philips Hue Movement Sensor on your lighting system and you’ll have sure bulbs come on and off when motion is detected in a room â very useful for these nighttime toilet journeys or post-party stumbling into mattress.
The movement sensor is easy to arrange and use. Contained in the Hue cellular app, go to Settings then choose Accent setup so as to add and configure the sensor. You’ll be able to set what occurs when motion is detected, by which room, and for a way lengthy.
There are each indoor and outside fashions obtainable.
2. Set power-on behaviour
Typically your Hue lights do not at all times activate primarily based on a command from the Hue app: possibly you flicked the sunshine change, for instance, or there was an influence reduce.
By way of Energy-on behaviour within the Settings web page of the Hue app, you possibly can set what every Hue bulb ought to do when energy is restored.
3. Join Philips Hue to Google Home
Need to management your Philips Hue lights along with your Google Home audio system or by way of Google Assistant? It is simply achieved, via the Google Home app for Android or iOS: from the entrance display, faucet Add (the plus icon), then Arrange machine, then the Works with Google possibility.
Choose Philips Hue from the following display, and you’ll join your bulbs. As soon as that is achieved they’re going to be seen within the Google Home app and will be managed by way of voice instructions like “hey Google, flip off the bed room lights”.
4. Join Philips Hue to Amazon Alexa
When you personal an Amazon Echo relatively than a Google Home smart speaker, you are not neglected. Open up the Alexa app for Android or iOS, then select Units. Faucet the Add icon (the plus image), select Add System, and choose Philips Hue from the listing.
As with Google Home and Google Assistant, you possibly can then management your Hue bulbs along with your voice or although the Alexa app (the Hue app carries on working as regular too). It is a neat strategy to mix smart lights from totally different producers.
5. Join Philips Hue to Apple Home
You will get your Philips Hue lights linked to the Apple Home app too, if it is HomeKit that is connecting your whole smart home units. Open up the Home app in your iPhone, then faucet Add (the plus icon) and Add Accent.
You will be prompted to both scan the code on the packaging of your Philips Hue machine, or enter it manually. As soon as the machine has been added to the Home app, you possibly can incorporate it into your automations and scenes.
6. Use an Amazon Echo Plus, Echo Present or new Echo as a hub
The Amazon Echo Plus was the primary Alexa smart speaker to come back with a Zigbee hub in-built. That connectivity has additionally been added to some Present fashions, together with the Third-gen Echo Present 10, Third-gen Present 8, and the 4th-gen 2020 Echo as effectively.
With these units you possibly can really arrange and function Hue bulbs via the Alexa app and ditch the Hue Bridge utterly. The method is identical as within the earlier step for including the smart lights, although you possibly can’t do as many methods with the lights as you possibly can with the official app. We have a full information right here.
7. Add Ikea Trådfri lights to a Philips Hue system
Talking of smart lights from totally different producers… As a result of Ikea TrÃ¥dfri bulbs help the Zigbee customary, you possibly can add them to a Hue Bridge and use the Hue app to regulate them, relatively than the TrÃ¥dfri app.
They need to seem as new bulbs so as to add as soon as you have gone via the steps we have outlined right here.
8. Sync your Hue lights with motion pictures and video games
Because of a free, official Home windows and macOS desktop app, your Hue lights can well sync with the audio and visuals of a film or online game working in your laptop. Setup is easy and solely takes just a few steps, and we have written concerning the course of intimately right here.
You’ll be able to take this a step additional – and streamline the method – if you happen to fork out for the superior Hue Play Sync Field, which works with lights just like the Hue Play Gradient lightstrip to supercharge your home film watching.
9. Sync your Hue lights with music
The Hue Sync app we talked about within the earlier tip works with music coming out of your laptop computer or desktop too, however we’re breaking this out as a separate entry in our listing as a result of there are a variety of third-party apps that do the job very capably.
If the Hue Sync app does not fairly do what you are on the lookout for, otherwise you want one thing in your telephone to match your smart cycles with the beats of your music, then Huegasm, Hue Disco, and iLightShow are all value a glance.
10. Cycle via scenes dynamically
Do not ignore the huge array of third-party Philips Hue apps that may add additional capabilities to your lighting system.
One in every of our favorites is OnSwitch for Android and iOS (which additionally works with Lifx bulbs, by the way in which); it enables you to cycle via every kind of dynamic scenes, from flickering candlelight to colourful strobe lighting.
11. Regulate lights primarily based on the daylight
By way of the Hue Labs entry within the Discover tab of the Hue app you possibly can entry some experimental options that the event crew is enjoying round with â like the choice to have routines be depending on the obtainable daylight.
This one known as Conditional schedules and solely prompts the desired lights if it is darkish exterior.
12. Cycle via colours robotically
When you’ve obtained colour Hue bulbs someplace in your setup, then you should use the Dwelling scenes system from the Hue Labs part of the app to cycle via totally different shades robotically.
The app lets you choose a palette of colours and a brightness degree, and you’ll tweak the transition time between colours too.
13. Scare away burglars with randomised lighting
One other Hue Labs experiment we would like to attract your consideration to known as Gentle schedules with randomness.
That is most useful if you’re away from home, as a result of you possibly can set occasions on your Hue lights to come back on and off, with just a little little bit of randomness launched to make any potential burglars assume you are still in the home.
14. Get social media notifications by way of your lights
Philips Hue is a totally paid up member of the IFTTT (If This Then That) membership, a service that connects totally different apps and platforms collectively (from Fb to Dropbox to Fitbit). It means you possibly can develop Hue’s capabilities with a bunch of additional triggers and actions that IFTTT refers to as applets.
Join a free account, join your Hue account, and you’ll then click on Create to construct new applets. For instance, choose Twitter and New point out of you as a set off, and Philips Hue and Blink lights because the motion, and your chosen bulbs will flash each time somebody mentions you on the social community.
15. Get climate warnings by way of your lights
There are every kind of the way you should use IFTTT to do extra along with your Philips Hue smart lights, however here is only one extra instance: create a brand new applet, choose Climate Underground and Present situation modifications to, then choose Rain and select your location on the map.
For the motion, choose Philips Hue then Change colour. You will then have the ability to have considered one of your Hue lights flip blue each time rain is forecast, and naturally you possibly can adapt the applet to swimsuit no matter sort of forecasting necessities you have obtained.
16. Slowly flip off or flip in your lights
Head into Routines within the Hue app and you may discover Get up and Fall asleep choices â these allow you to slowly fade up or fade down a specific set of bulbs at a particular time, so you should use them to softly get up within the morning or fall asleep at night time.
17. Use your lights as a timer
Whether or not you are cooking within the kitchen or attempting to prepare for work, you should use your lights as a timer â have chosen bulbs activate or off, change brightness, or change colour after a sure time has elapsed.
To get this arrange, select Routines then Timers contained in the Hue app, and observe the prompts on display.
18. Routinely flip the lights off if you depart the home
Nobody needs to depart a bulb burning unnecessarily, and if you happen to’ve obtained the Hue app put in in your telephone then it is aware of the place you might be (or the place your telephone is no less than).
When you faucet Routines, then Home & Away, then Leaving home, you possibly can have some or your whole lights change off if you head out. Simply test nobody else in your family goes to be plunged into darkness if you do.
19. Mimic a thunderstorm along with your Hue lights
One other third-party app we actually like: Thunderstorm for Hue for Android and iOS. It pipes via the sound of a storm (join some Bluetooth audio system to your telephone for optimum impact), then pulses, flashes and glints your chosen Hue lights in time to the sounds. A really cool trick.
20. Customise your lights
As you begin to add increasingly lights to your Philips Hue setup, you possibly can shortly lose observe of which one is the place â that is an issue whether or not you are tapping on icons contained in the app or attempting to name out your lights with a voice command.
When you faucet Settings after which Gentle setup contained in the cellular app, you possibly can change each the identify and the icon of any of the Philip Hue lights you have put in. Giving them descriptive names will assist you to work out which is which.
21. Get the timings proper
When you want your lights to activate or flip off at particular occasions of the day â when it’s essential to be reminded to do one thing, possibly â then that is no drawback for the Philips Hue app on cellular.
Select Routines, Different routines, Create routine and At a particular time, and configure the timings as required.