Philips Announces New Hue Bulbs, Hue Bridge 2.0 With HomeKit Compatibility

[Surftony]

I've used the app "Home - Smart Home Automation" to set my rooms and zones and it works great. Zones can contain multiples rooms which is really interesting. My main problem now is to find how I can tell all the commands in french. I got a few of them but I can't find out how to change brightness or colors. And when I ask to turn a light on, she answer " (Name of the light) is male" lol. I need to use french since with the apple watch, when I want to text somebody it needs to be in french because most of my friends are french. Maybe we'll get bilingual Siri one day...
Also I sometimes get "No answer from the system". Homekit looks like a beta product right now, I would not recommend it to everybody today, but it looks promising.

 

[ssimonvii]

I've used the app "Home - Smart Home Automation" to set my rooms and zones and it works great. Zones can contain multiples rooms which is really interesting. My main problem now is to find how I can tell all the commands in french. I got a few of them but I can't find out how to change brightness or colors. And when I ask to turn a light on, she answer " (Name of the light) is male" lol. I need to use french since with the apple watch, when I want to text somebody it needs to be in french because most of my friends are french. Maybe we'll get bilingual Siri one day...
Also I sometimes get "No answer from the system". Homekit looks like a beta product right now, I would not recommend it to everybody today, but it looks promising.

Thanks for the suggestion. With this app, are you able to say something like "set kitchen lights to blue"? So far, it seems like I can only change the color/turn off all nights or individual lights... not groups. Thanks!

 

[Surftony]

Thanks for the suggestion. With this app, are you able to say something like "set kitchen lights to blue"? So far, it seems like I can only change the color/turn off all nights or individual lights... not groups. Thanks!

I'll try tonight. In french I haven't figured the proper command. I'll switch my phone in english and check. It works for on/off and you can create custom commands as well like "I'm going to bed" and all the ligths turn off except one or anything you want. I'll keep you posted!

 

[Mr. Y]

Has anyone set up more than one iPhone for their new bridge? I had my phone set up, everything was working fine with Siri commands using the Hue app, and then when I set up my boyfriend's iPhone everything went "downhill". First, my connection got lost for a few minutes. Then, after it recognized my connection, neither of us could use Siri commands (kept saying it couldn't find a light). Any thoughts/suggestions?

 

[OCDMacGeek]

Has anyone set up more than one iPhone for their new bridge? I had my phone set up, everything was working fine with Siri commands using the Hue app, and then when I set up my boyfriend's iPhone everything went "downhill". First, my connection got lost for a few minutes. Then, after it recognized my connection, neither of us could use Siri commands (kept saying it couldn't find a light). Any thoughts/suggestions?

Yes! Same situation here! Please check some of my posts above in this thread. (And I've been posting all over, even told Apple Support.). I don't think Apple has tested for the idea that there would be multiple iPhones using the same iCloud ID and syncing HomeKit through keychain. Using an iPhone and an iPad seems to work without a hitch, but if you throw another iPhone into the equation, it's totally screwed up over time.

 

[Surftony]

Yes! Same situation here! Please check some of my posts above in this thread. (And I've been posting all over, even told Apple Support.). I don't think Apple has tested for the idea that there would be multiple iPhones using the same iCloud ID and syncing HomeKit through keychain. Using an iPhone and an iPad seems to work without a hitch, but if you throw another iPhone into the equation, it's totally screwed up over time.

Have you invited the person via homekit? That part works fine for me.

 

[Mr. Y]

Yes! Same situation here! Please check some of my posts above in this thread. (And I've been posting all over, even told Apple Support.). I don't think Apple has tested for the idea that there would be multiple iPhones using the same iCloud ID and syncing HomeKit through keychain. Using an iPhone and an iPad seems to work without a hitch, but if you throw another iPhone into the equation, it's totally screwed up over time.

Just to clarify, I'm using two different iPhones with two different iCloud accounts but both on the same WiFi Network. I'm going to try and reset my Bridge. Hopefully this issue is resolved soon.

UPDATE: I revoked permission/"sharing" from the other iCloud account under Setting > HomeKit and now I am able to use Siri again. This is really quite disappointing if you can only control lights through Bridge 2.0/HomeKit using only one paired iCloud account.

 

[Mr. Y]

Have you invited the person via homekit? That part works fine for me.

I did invite the person via HomeKit, they accepted and it showed up as shared; however, in the Hue App it said they were not an Administrator and could not make changes (fine) but then neither of us could use Siri commands (we could still manually adjust the lights).

 

[protobiont]

I did invite the person via HomeKit, they accepted and it showed up as shared; however, in the Hue App it said they were not an Administrator and could not make changes (fine) but then neither of us could use Siri commands (we could still manually adjust the lights).

I'm getting my starter kit tomorrow, and this is quite disappointing to hear.

 

[esf215]

Thanks for the suggestion. With this app, are you able to say something like "set kitchen lights to blue"? So far, it seems like I can only change the color/turn off all nights or individual lights... not groups. Thanks!

I use the insteon+ app. I can said turn living room red and it will turn all three of my lights red. Or I can do it individual

 

[esf215]

Just to clarify, I'm using two different iPhones with two different iCloud accounts but both on the same WiFi Network. I'm going to try and reset my Bridge. Hopefully this issue is resolved soon.

UPDATE: I revoked permission/"sharing" from the other iCloud account under Setting > HomeKit and now I am able to use Siri again. This is really quite disappointing if you can only control lights through Bridge 2.0/HomeKit using only one paired iCloud account.

Mine work fine. I gave my wife iCloud account permission in homekit. We have two iPhone and two iPad and she can give the same command I give. I download insteon+ app which is Better than the hue app. Also in the hue app when you click on siri command in settings, make sure your check your scenes . I ended up not checking them and setting everything up in the other app

 

[Surftony]

Mine work fine. I gave my wife iCloud account permission in homekit. We have two iPhone and two iPad and she can give the same command I give. I download insteon+ app which is Better than the hue app. Also in the hue app when you click on siri command in settings, make sure your check your scenes . I ended up not checking them and setting everything up in the other app

I tried to give permission and it doesn't show any devices. I now suspect my tri-band router. (1 iphone on one band the other on band 2..) I'll work on this later today.

 

[unplugme71]

Sadly I think we are 5 years away from HomeKit being a solid platform.

The HA work needs to standardize on a protocol. There's just too much out there. Too much confusion. And we are trusting third parties. For this to truly work, Apple needs to step it up and create the experience entirely. Not rely on third party hardware companies to make apps

 

[esf215]

Sadly I think we are 5 years away from HomeKit being a solid platform.

The HA work needs to standardize on a protocol. There's just too much out there. Too much confusion. And we are trusting third parties. For this to truly work, Apple needs to step it up and create the experience entirely. Not rely on third party hardware companies to make apps

I totally agree with you. However I think it will be shorter than 5 years. I Bet Apple is probably working on an app that will come out either with iOS 10 or 11

 

[unplugme71]

I totally agree with you. However I think it will be shorter than 5 years. I Bet Apple is probably working on an app that will come out either with iOS 10 or 11

HomeKit has been out for quite some time. Granted a year was wasted due to Apple's licensing. It's only recently that HK devices have started to come out. However, you still have heavily competing technologies - Zwave, ZigBee, X10, Insteon, Nest (can't remember what they were using), and Home Kit.

Phillips, Kwikset, Ecobee, etc should be focusing on hardware. Let Google, Microsoft, and Apple focus on the user experience.

And yeah, some actually do have nice apps. But I feel it takes away time and resources that could be spent making the hardware better. Plus I rather open one app than 10 different apps to control my devices.

 

[protobiont]

Could you use both Amazon Echo and Siri to control hue bulbs? Same goes for something like the harmony home control, can you mix and match control devices?

Thanks!

 

[sam3020]

Still nothing in the uk. I want one :-(

 

[iosfan1991]

In 2015 wireless bulbs shouldn't require bridge hardware. The mere idea of these existing frustrates me. They are like power bricks—yuck! The bulbs should be designed to be popped into the light fixture whereby they would appear in the app to be setup via an ad-hock connection and via password from your mobile device connect to the network. Yes, it would require more hardware and software work on Philips part to get their bulbs to work like this, but that is their job and it is technically possible. And if the bulbs cost $5 extra to do this, so be it. It would simplify setup and ownership of these bulbs greatly, and there would be savings from the lack of fussy bridge hardware.

It would require building a wifi controller, CPU, RAM (virtually a whole computer) and have each lightbulb running an operating system to interface with the data received over wifi from the phone.

Now considering the lightbulbs have a limited lifespan and have to be disposed, this would be incredibly wasteful, and would add a huge amount of cost to the design of the system for no functional benefit.

It makes far more sense to implement all that logic once, in a separate controller device which can transmit to any number of lightbulbs over simple RF, then just put a tiny microcontroller in each lightbulb which actions the commands received. A hugely more efficient design than what you suggest and doesn't limit the functionality at all.

The other benefit of the separate controller is it can be connected by Ethernet rather than wifi, for much higher reliability.

 

[Mr. Y]

I tried to give permission and it doesn't show any devices. I now suspect my tri-band router. (1 iphone on one band the other on band 2..) I'll work on this later today.

I thought that might work/be the case for my problem (two phones, two iCloud accounts) but we are both on the same router "band".

Wish that Philips had a good support system to troubleshoot this issue.

 

[zacware]

In order for me to be able to say something like "turn living room lights on", I used another HomeKit app, in this case it was the Eve app by Elgato, and in the Homekit setup there is an option for "Service Groups". I made a service group named Living Room Lights, Bedroom Lights, Family Room Lights, and Downstairs Lights (combination of living room and family room), and then I was able to turn off groups of lights via Siri.

During setup, I wound up in a position where I scanned the HomeKit ID and setup the new bridge, and after the transfer of settings, the new bridge wouldn't respond as a HomeKit device, and I couldn't find a way in the Hue app to "re" set it up. So once again, I opened the Eve app, and deleted the Hue bridge as a homekit device, and then I was able to use the Hue app to re-scan the HomeKit ID and finally get Siri working

Note.... names of service groups or anything else HomeKit related must be a unique name for Siri to work. If the name isn't unique, you won't be able to add it.

 

[Surftony]

Finally got everything to work (Sharing/rooms/zones) but sometimes everything gets unreachable... I've used Insteon+ app and it was pretty straith forward. I'll get one of ihome switch this weekend and I'll check if it's only hue that drops or everything.
Haven't found yet how to set brightness and colors in french
Also if anybody has wemo and found out if there is a way to control them via Siri, please let me know!

 

[protobiont]

I've used the app "Home - Smart Home Automation" to set my rooms and zones and it works great. Zones can contain multiples rooms which is really interesting. My main problem now is to find how I can tell all the commands in french. I got a few of them but I can't find out how to change brightness or colors. And when I ask to turn a light on, she answer " (Name of the light) is male" lol. I need to use french since with the apple watch, when I want to text somebody it needs to be in french because most of my friends are french. Maybe we'll get bilingual Siri one day...
Also I sometimes get "No answer from the system". Homekit looks like a beta product right now, I would not recommend it to everybody today, but it looks promising.

I purchased this app, but I find the naming conventions confusing. It seems like the home app has a name for each light AND the official Hue app has a name for each light, but they can't be the same name. I haven't had time to test yet, but which name does siri recognize?

 

[Surftony]

I purchased this app, but I find the naming conventions confusing. It seems like the home app has a name for each light AND the official Hue app has a name for each light, but they can't be the same name. I haven't had time to test yet, but which name does siri recognize?

For me the name that Siri recognize is the one you set in the home app. I had english names for my hue ligths and Siri is set in french so she had a hard time cathching what I said. She also recognizes rooms and zones from home app.

 

[philipk]

In order for me to be able to say something like "turn living room lights on", I used another HomeKit app, in this case it was the Eve app by Elgato, and in the Homekit setup there is an option for "Service Groups". I made a service group named Living Room Lights, Bedroom Lights, Family Room Lights, and Downstairs Lights (combination of living room and family room), and then I was able to turn off groups of lights via Siri.

During setup, I wound up in a position where I scanned the HomeKit ID and setup the new bridge, and after the transfer of settings, the new bridge wouldn't respond as a HomeKit device, and I couldn't find a way in the Hue app to "re" set it up. So once again, I opened the Eve app, and deleted the Hue bridge as a homekit device, and then I was able to use the Hue app to re-scan the HomeKit ID and finally get Siri working

Note.... names of service groups or anything else HomeKit related must be a unique name for Siri to work. If the name isn't unique, you won't be able to add it.

I used this and it worked well.

I lost all my the settings last night. Yesterday, they had to shut of the power to my house for one hour. When the power was restored, my Bridge v2 recognized all my lights, groups, and scenes. Siri and Eve only recognized my Hue bulbs. All my GE Link bulbs were lost. I had to reset both HomeKit and the Philips' hub. I wouldn't do that again if it happens in the near future. I will just give up on HomeKit for now.

As of this moment, Siri HomeKit is working well with ALL my lights by using ROOMS.

Thanks!

 

[Mr. Y]

Finally got everything to work (Sharing/rooms/zones) but sometimes everything gets unreachable... I've used Insteon+ app and it was pretty straith forward. I'll get one of ihome switch this weekend and I'll check if it's only hue that drops or everything.
Haven't found yet how to set brightness and colors in french
Also if anybody has wemo and found out if there is a way to control them via Siri, please let me know!

Is there any trick to sharing that I am missing? I sent an invite to another iCloud user via HomeKit on my iPhone, who accepted it, has access to change the lights through the Hue App, but cannot use Siri commands even though they work perfectly for me.