Philips hue how does it work

One of the most frequent questions we get asked here at TechHive is whether you really need a hub to use Philips Hue bulbs. The answer? But there are plenty of reasons to spring for a hub anyway.

All that changed, however, with the mid debut of Hue bulbs that supported Bluetooth as well as Zigbee. Thanks to the addition of Bluetooth, supported Hue bulbs can be controlled directly from Bluetooth-enabled iOS and Android devices, no hub required.

Philips Hue has gradually rolled out more Bluetooth- and Zigbee-equipped bulbs over the past couple of years—and indeed, all new Hue lighting products support the two wireless protocols. Note, however, that this is not the case for hardwired indoor and outdoor Hue lighting fixtures, aka luminaires. Explanation of the Philips Hue bridge. Philips Hue Bridge. How many lamps can I connect to 1 bridge? You can connect up to 50 lamps to 1 bridge.

The Hue lights can be controlled remotely thanks to the bridge, even from abroad. You can set this light to 16 million colors and all shades of white. Expand this set with up to 50 Philips Hue smart lights. You need a stable WiFi network to control the lights. My Hue lamp isn't automatically connecting to my Philips Hue bridge, how do I solve this? View everything from Philips Hue. Did this help you? Yes No. How can we improve this page?

We only use your feedback to improve the website, we won't respond. Submit your feedback. You could also connect your lights with a motion sensor , then program them to turn on automatically whenever someone enters the room.

Other, more advanced features include automatic Google Assistant wake-up lighting that can slowly fade your bedroom lights up during the thirty minutes prior to your morning Google Assistant alarm. Another recent feature called Hue Entertainment lets you set your lights to mimic the color of whatever's playing on your computer screen in real time.

Connect that computer to your living room TV for a color-coordinated movie night with the kids -- that is, if you don't find the feature too distracting. With multiple HDMI jacks, you plug all of your media streamers, set top boxes and gaming consoles into it, and then connect it to your TV. From there, it reads the incoming video signals, which lets your Hue Bridge match the color of your lights to whatever's on your TV screen.

That brings all sorts of new content under Hue Entertainment's control. Like I said before, it works with quite a lot. Most notable are the voice assistants -- in fact, Hue was the first smart lighting platform to hit the trifecta and sync up with Alexa, Siri and the Google Assistant and hey, Hue works with Cortana, too.

Make the connection, and you'll be able to turn your bulbs on and off, dim them up and down or trigger your scenes by asking your assistant of choice to do it. On the Alexa front, Philips Hue also offers direct compatibility between its lights and the Amazon Echo Plus , an Alexa smart speaker with its own, built-in Zigbee radio.

That means that Echo Plus owners don't need the Hue Bridge if they want to pair Hue bulbs with Alexa -- though they'll only be able to control those Hue lights in the Alexa app and by using Alexa voice commands.

If they want to use the Hue app or any of Hue's other integrations, they'll still need the Hue Bridge plugged into their router. Keep an eye out for new "Friends of Hue" smart switches -- when paired with Hue bulbs, your automations and voice controls will continue to work even then the switch is off. You can also add Philips Hue bulbs and fixtures to a whole lot of other smart home platforms, including Wink , Samsung SmartThings and security-minded automation systems like Comcast Xfinity Home and Vivint.

Just know that for all of them, you'll still need the Hue Bridge. Speaking of the Hue Bridge, it also supports third-party Zigbee lights that aren't made by Philips. That includes inexpensive smart bulbs from names like Cree and Sylvania that cost a few bucks less than Hue's white light bulbs at retail.

Just make sure that those smart bulbs send their signals using the Zigbee wireless protocol. Something else to watch for: A growing number of smart light switches designed to connect with Hue's light bulbs , making it so your automations and voice controls will continue to work even when things are off at the wall with a regular light switch, cutting the power makes it so your bulbs can't receive signals from the Hue Bridge.

We've already tested one such smart switch from RunLessWire, and came away impressed. Another, the Lutron Aurora , simply acts like a dimmer dial that covers the old switch, locking it into the on position. You've got lots! Hue sells both color-changing and white-light bulbs in a variety of shapes and sizes. They include:. There's a lot of those, too and even more of them if you're shopping in Europe.

Among the most notable:. Of all of these, I think most people will get the most value with a Philips Hue White starter kit , which includes the essential Hue Bridge and a couple of Hue White bulbs to get you going, complete with a smart button. It's enough to get your feet wet, and since it comes with the Hue Bridge included, you can build upon it, gradually expanding your setup, light by light.

The smart way to do this is to figure out which products appeal to you the most and then wait for a sale. You shouldn't have to wait long -- Philips Hue products are frequently marked down at major retailers like Amazon, Best Buy and Home Depot.

Good deals on days like Black Friday and Prime Day are pretty much a given at this point, too. To each their own, but I tend to think color-changing bulbs are a bit frivolous in lamps and overhead lights you typically use as primary light sources for shared spaces seriously, how often are you really going to want to be able to bathe your entire living room in purple?

Instead, I find that lights like these are best suited as accents that you aim at your walls wherever they might benefit from a pop of color. That's why I tend to like the Philips Hue Play light bars and the kid-friendly, battery-powered Philips Hue Go fixture a little bit better than the bulbs. Same goes for the Philips Hue Lightstrip -- though I wish that it was capable of putting out more than one color at once, like the Lifx Z Lightstrip is.

Philips Hue offers some solid accessories for its system, too. First among these in my mind is the self-powering Philips Hue Tap remote. Mount it outside your home if you want your Hue lights to turn on automatically as you're fumbling for your keys at the front door after a long day at work. I like it for indoor use, too -- even more so than the standard Philips Hue Motion Sensor.

You've got plenty of options when it comes to color-changing lights, so it's smart to shop around. Just keep in mind that no other competitor has a smart lighting platform that's as steady or well-developed as Philips Hue. Read more: The best color-changing smart bulbs that cost less than Philips Hue.

That weird, greenish cyan setting for the Hue bulb in that grid above seems to be a unique issue when controlling it with Alexa. Here's how the Hue bulb's cyan setting looks when you're using the Hue app, Siri or the Google Assistant.

The closest is probably Lifx, a smart lighting startup out of Australia that caught fire in the crowdfunding scene several years ago. Lifx offers terrific app controls, it works with a great range of third parties, including Alexa, Siri, IFTTT and the Google Assistant, and it's done a good job of building out a wide product lineup.

Philips Hue doesn't offer anything like that for your walls.