Promoted: Essential apps for Philips Hue
App developers all over the world are beavering away to embiggen the Philips Hue ecosystem… and some of them are bona fide geniuses
The internet of things promises a lot. Smart this, intelligent that, self-aware the other. But much of its gadgetry requires a level of geekiness that many folk aren’t up for achieving.
Philips Hue is different. Plug its smart lights into your existing fixtures, hook up the Bridge connection box to your network, and off you go. It’s simple, quick, doesn’t require a C++ certification, and opens your home up to a world of lighting possibilities.
Each bulb, lamp or lightstrip can show up to 16.7 million colours, is dimmable, and can work independently or with each other to light individual rooms or the whole house in any number of preset scenes.
It’s networked, too – which means you can control the system from afar (great for fooling would-be tea-leaves if you’re on holiday), and even make it work with Apple HomeKit for a truly integrated smart home.
And best of all, Philips has opened up its secrets to developers. If you aren’t content with just switching colours and mucking about with dimmer settings (which is pretty impressive on its own), you can take things up a notch or five with apps like…
Philips Hue app
The official Hue app is your ideal starting point to explore the world of smart lighting. It allows you to control your lights remotely, schedule them to turn on or off automatically, set colours and loads more.
A recent update has added Siri voice control, if you have an Apple Homekit-enabled bridge – so now you can talk to your lights. It’ll be like you’re actually living in a super-cool sci-fi film. Lights. On!
Hue Christmas
Christmas is approaching, which means lots of people will be spending hours balancing on stools stringing up fairy lights. Don’t do that. This app is much better: it turns your entire home lighting system into a feast of festive fancy.
It has various modes, including a snow effect, so you can at least pretend it’s a White Christmas. You can also twin it with sound effects, so you can hear Santa arriving while magic twinkles flicker through your room. Ooooh.
Hue Fireworks
This app will add sparkle to your New Year’s Eve celebration without you having to stand out in the cold lighting fireworks that won’t actually explode properly.
Connect your mobile up to an audio speaker and Hue Fireworks includes a countdown option – allowing you to build up to a spectacular (and safe) virtual firework display at Midnight.
There are third party Hue apps for events throughout the year, such as Hue Halloween for spooky fun.
Huebilight
Planning to settle down to watch a great movie over the holiday? This app turns your home lighting into an integral part of your television set-up. It analyses the colour of whatever you’re watching, and then sets your home lighting to match perfectly, enhancing your TV viewing experience. It’s like a surround sound system, but for lights. Brilliant.
Download for iOS.
Hue Disco, Splyce, Hue Party, Ambify
Philips Hue is perfect for party season – and there are plenty of third-party apps that turn your living room into a dance floor. They all match your lights to your music, whether that’s a pulsing strobe for upbeat dance, or romantic mood lighting when you’ve put on a slower number.
Hue Disco for iOS. Hue Disco for Android.
Splyce for iOS. Splyce for Android
Hue Party for iOS.
Ambify for iOS.
Hue Candles
The Hue wireless lighting system is great for parties, but it’s also perfect when you need to relax. Whether it’s for a romantic evening or a long soak in the tub, Hue Candles creates a soothing flickering candle effect, without you having to faff about with actual candles and matches.
Download for iOS.
Espresso for Hue
This app doesn’t turn your Philips Hue into a coffee maker. It’s better than that: it generates an infinite number of light combinations that can change slowly over time, filling your home with light that is never the same. Those colours are based on natural things like sunset or ice, so it’s pleasingly subtle rather than brash and bright.
Download for iOS.
If This Then That
This app works across multiple devices and allows you to control almost anything – and the ‘recipes’ offer nearly limitless possibilities with your Hue system.
Want your lights to flash whenever the International Space Station passes overhead (so you’ll remember to pop out and wave at Tim Peake)? It can do that. Really, it can. Hi, Tim!
You can also set your lights to turn blue when it rains, or to flash whenever something notable happens in your team’s football game.
For more information, visit www.meethue.com/stuff
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