Philips Extends HomeKit Support to Hue Tap, Dimmer Switch, and Motion Sensor

[nitramluap]

The only trouble is they don’t actively talk to each other. Each app doesn’t know if the other one has turned lights on/off. Hopefully they’ll add the twinned sensor that hue labs have as well.

Yes, it's a little frustrating but I expect this to improve markedly over the coming months.

One *advantage* of a HomeKit hub (Apple TV, iPad or HomePod) controlling all the automations is that it frees up space on the Philips Hue Bridge. It has a limited capacity for animations, automatons, scenes, etc. whereas HomeKit doesn't seem to have any limitations here... at least not that I've found yet.

Another advantage is that you can mix different manufacturers together when it would normally either not be possible, or only possible with an external link site such as IFTTT.

For example, I have set a Philips Hue Tap switch button to turn on my coffee machine which is plugged into an Elgato Eve Energy plug. While the Home app is relatively simple, it is manufacturer agnostic, which makes it a seamless experience. I LIKE the fact that it's all controllable within the one place - kinda like Apple Pay. I'm not interested in the banks making their own payment/wallet apps... I want ONE place for ALL of my cards, regardless of bank.

 

[pichael]

Yes, it's a little frustrating but I expect this to improve markedly over the coming months.

One *advantage* of a HomeKit hub (Apple TV, iPad or HomePod) controlling all the automations is that it frees up space on the Philips Hue Bridge. It has a limited capacity for animations, automatons, scenes, etc. whereas HomeKit doesn't seem to have any limitations here... at least not that I've found yet.

Another advantage is that you can mix different manufacturers together when it would normally either not be possible, or only possible with an external link site such as IFTTT.

For example, I have set a Philips Hue Tap switch button to turn on my coffee machine which is plugged into an Elgato Eve Energy plug. While the Home app is relatively simple, it is manufacturer agnostic, which makes it a seamless experience. I LIKE the fact that it's all controllable within the one place - kinda like Apple Pay. I'm not interested in the banks making their own payment/wallet apps... I want ONE place for ALL of my cards, regardless of bank.

I agree completely with that. That’s why I’m not slamming it at all because I can see what will come with time. I think all the features Phillips currently have will be added to HomeKit.

My main thing is the fact that Phillips added the ability to their accessories. I’ve four of their sensors and stopped after realising HomeKit wasn’t enabled thinking I might have to get another brands which I would have done but do love the ambient sensor as sometimes is does get dark during the day and like that they will turn on automatically when they sense this.

I think HomeKit is going to be apples next iPod in terms of household penetration now they are releasing the HomePod. Exciting times ahead.

 

[nitramluap]

Exciting times ahead.

Indeed!

 

[wesley96]

Has anyone looked into how the ambient sensor works with the lights? I don’t see a way of telling the automation to not work when there is enough natural light. The Hue app had it all in one page. I don’t really want to add a separate automation turning off the light as I think the two will just battle turning the lights on and off.

It's not possible yet... but I wouldn't be surprised if this sort of functionality is added down the track.

What you *can* do is to make the automation only activate during certain hours (ie. daylight) in the meantime.

What? No. You CAN use the ambient sensor reading as a condition to limit HomeKit automation right now. In fact, I have two Philips Hue Motion Sensors to do just that in my house. Lights don't come on unless the room is dark and everything is set up under HomeKit framework.

The problem is that the default Home app is still inept for setting up useful automations. As you may know, there are three parts to it - trigger / condition / action. Home app sets up trigger and action fine, but it doesn't give you much option for condition. To set up some really good conditions, use a 3rd party app like Elgato Eve. There, you can set up a condition to evaluate how bright the ambient light is (e.g. less than 12 lumens) and only if that condition is met the action occurs.

 

[Applebot1]

I’m really liking my motion sensors more than ever with this update they have so much potential in terms of programming them for different scenarios. In fact they are my fave accessory in the Hue eco system.

 

[nitramluap]

Just bought some more Hue Motion Sensors for around the house purely because of this.

Firstly, for movement notifications when nobody is home (and to turn on bright lights to blind an intruder - helps with capturing them on video too )... but also for the simple temperature sensing.

I can ask Siri "What's the temperature at home" and it will respond with "The temperatures in your home range from x to x degrees".

If I want to know about a specific room, I can ask that too, and I can use a temperature to control an scene/device, although this requires a third party app and not the built-in Home App. Apple needs to add this functionality. At the moment you can't set a temperature sensor as a trigger condition with the Apple Home app.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

I just bought two Dimmer Switches because of this article and cannot get them to work.

I followed the tutorial and removed the switch from any room and setup my buttons in the Home app.

Home recognizes the button presses but doesn’t activate the scenes.

Any ideas?

 

[nitramluap]

I just bought two Dimmer Switches because of this article and cannot get them to work.

I followed the tutorial and removed the switch from any room and setup my buttons in the Home app.

Home recognizes the button presses but doesn’t activate the scenes.

Any ideas?

I'm finding the problem is with the hub (in my case the Apple TV) needing a reboot. For some reason the automations don't all work until a reboot, particularly having just created them. And even then one will decide to not work for no reason whatsoever. It's frustrating.

I hope this is all addressed in an upcoming iOS bug fix. There is so much potential, but when glitches like this occur, it makes the whole notion of a 'smart home' really dumb, because to fix the failure requires more steps than if you didn't have a 'smart' home.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

I'm finding the problem is with the hub (in my case the Apple TV) needing a reboot. For some reason the automations don't all work until a reboot, particularly having just created them. And even then one will decide to not work for no reason whatsoever. It's frustrating.

I hope this is all addressed in an upcoming iOS bug fix. There is so much potential, but when glitches like this occur, it makes the whole notion of a 'smart home' really dumb, because to fix the failure requires more steps than if you didn't have a 'smart' home.

I 'resolved' my issues by rebooting my iPad and iPhone, and making changes to then setting properly, the buttons I wanted, on my iPad. For whatever reason, they just didn't want to work on my SE.