It's about bloody time they updated that archaic bridge, just ordered the pro bridge, hopefully the transition from the old bridge to the new one will be somewhat painless as I really don't want to go setting up 70 odd Hue devices one by one which include bulbs, buttons, switches and motion sensors.
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Philips Hue Line Gains Bridge Pro, New Bulbs, Updated Outdoor Lights and More
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That's me...I'm right at 49, and have two Hue lights in the drawer, unused. It's not just the 50 light limit either...you get capped on scenes pretty quickly too. This upgrade is a NO BRAINER for those who have a ton of Hue lights already. I can't wait to add a bunch more scenes or zones for automation purposes that I couldn't do before due to the limitation.
thanks for posting, just ordered.
About darn time they upgraded this. Having 3 bridges is a PITA. I just hope they have backup/restore capabilities, and get the multi-bridge migration done soon.
Bonus would be actual syncing with Homekit, but until that's actually made usable, I can't blame them for not investing in it. Still can't believe that apple hasn't fixed that horrible UX (I only do it so I can use siri to control lights).
About darn time they upgraded this. Having 3 bridges is a PITA. I just hope they have backup/restore capabilities, and get the multi-bridge migration done soon.
Bonus would be actual syncing with Homekit, but until that's actually made usable, I can't blame them for not investing in it. Still can't believe that apple hasn't fixed that horrible UX (I only do it so I can use siri to control lights).
Not necessarily more integrated, anyone with a Hub wouldn’t notice a difference but just updated, mostly.
I set up someone’s entire house with Hue lights, worked with them for a week to set up the rooms and get all the automations in place that they wanted and haven’t heard a peep from them. At one point, I assumed that someone else had started supporting them but, when I recently caught up with them, all the automations are just still working (they did have to change the name of their garage doors, but I’d shown them enough to be able to do that).
Amazon still has starter kits available, but not the standalone bridge. I suspect Phillips grossly underestimated demand for these.
I do hope that we can disable the motion detect. That's just...creepy.
I do hope that we can disable the motion detect. That's just...creepy.
A few thoughts (fwiw) from someone who just ordered the Bridge Pro and is long invested in the Hue ecosystem. I currently have 4 bridges in service, with 3 in one location and 1 in a second location.
First of all, if you are not already invested in a smart-bulb based lighting solution like Hue -- and don't need color variations -- I'd strongly advise figuring out if you can instead do something wired switch based like Lutron Caseta (which I also have a ton of). Why? While Hue works pretty darn reliably, it's less intuitive for other people to use than something like Caseta with its wired wall switches. I know there are Hue wireless dimmers and switches, and I have a ton of those, but with latency and the occasional connectivity hiccup, it's just not the same (and the $ pile up). And when something more systemic does not work, troubleshooting can be a bear. I recently went through a period where my 3-hub set up seemed to degrade from a reliability perspective, with most of the physical switch alternatives for Hue not working correctly. I basically had to remove and re-add all those switches for some reason after doing a "clean up" on all three bridges. It's better now, but I've never had any such issues with Lutron's Caseta system. Another alternative I've had success with is Leviton's Gen 2 HomeKit compatible switches. I absolutely love their motion sensor switch with a built in night light for deployment in bathrooms.
But since I am invested (heavily) in Hue, I jumped on the Bridge Pro right away, hoping that consolidating to one Bridge will maybe make things work better. However, as I read elsewhere online (after placing my order), the tools to consolidate multiple standard Bridges to the new Bridge Pro won't be made available until later this year. So that's a bummer. And I shudder to think about what happens if something in the transition doesn't go right. I'm north of 100 devices -- hence the three hubs. To have to re-add everything (and find the serial numbers) would be awful.
So I give Philips Hue great credit as a pioneer in this space and an early embracer of HomeKit compatibility. But just make sure you think about your needs and whether this is the right way to establish your smart home, if you are just starting out.
First of all, if you are not already invested in a smart-bulb based lighting solution like Hue -- and don't need color variations -- I'd strongly advise figuring out if you can instead do something wired switch based like Lutron Caseta (which I also have a ton of). Why? While Hue works pretty darn reliably, it's less intuitive for other people to use than something like Caseta with its wired wall switches. I know there are Hue wireless dimmers and switches, and I have a ton of those, but with latency and the occasional connectivity hiccup, it's just not the same (and the $ pile up). And when something more systemic does not work, troubleshooting can be a bear. I recently went through a period where my 3-hub set up seemed to degrade from a reliability perspective, with most of the physical switch alternatives for Hue not working correctly. I basically had to remove and re-add all those switches for some reason after doing a "clean up" on all three bridges. It's better now, but I've never had any such issues with Lutron's Caseta system. Another alternative I've had success with is Leviton's Gen 2 HomeKit compatible switches. I absolutely love their motion sensor switch with a built in night light for deployment in bathrooms.
But since I am invested (heavily) in Hue, I jumped on the Bridge Pro right away, hoping that consolidating to one Bridge will maybe make things work better. However, as I read elsewhere online (after placing my order), the tools to consolidate multiple standard Bridges to the new Bridge Pro won't be made available until later this year. So that's a bummer. And I shudder to think about what happens if something in the transition doesn't go right. I'm north of 100 devices -- hence the three hubs. To have to re-add everything (and find the serial numbers) would be awful.
So I give Philips Hue great credit as a pioneer in this space and an early embracer of HomeKit compatibility. But just make sure you think about your needs and whether this is the right way to establish your smart home, if you are just starting out.
Hopefully they won't take long adding the multi bridge transfer feature because I bet most upgrading will be to consolidate multiple bridges into one. Thankfully I only have one bridge, but it must be close to it's max capacity, so I'm hoping the transfer is smooth because setting everything up from scratch would take hours, and that's if it goes smoothly. Even if the Hue app transfers things identically, I assume I'm going to have to add that bridge to HomeKit manually again, so there will still be things I need to set up and rename and move around all over again.
I love my Hue ecosystem, it can over very overpriced when things aren't on sale, but in roughly 4 years I still haven't had a bulb die on me yet despite some being on 12+ hours a day. They are going to die eventually, but as expensive as they are, they can last a long time.
I love my Hue ecosystem, it can over very overpriced when things aren't on sale, but in roughly 4 years I still haven't had a bulb die on me yet despite some being on 12+ hours a day. They are going to die eventually, but as expensive as they are, they can last a long time.
Totally worth it i have over 75 lights (currently two bridges), i have had many other brands and every time I'm disappointed. In this case you definitely get what you pay for.
All of these lack in every other bulb/strip I've tried
1 Response time
2 Range/distance
3 Color accuracy
4 Boot up time
5 fade in fade out ability
6 Life of bulb
Almost every light in our downstairs has been replaced with a Hue bulb and I absolutely do get annoyed that I have to whip out my phone or invoke Siri to turn a light on, to say nothing about your point about guests. Our initial Hue kit came with a smart button that we configured to turn most of the downstairs lights on when pressed and that's the solution we use when my mother in law stays over, as she has neither the access nor the technical skill to figure out how to turn our lights on via the Home app. We are, however, suckers for changing colors based on holidays/seasons/moods, so the Hue bulbs work best for us.
What I did for my lights is put a Hue dimmer switch in every room for the main ceiling lights, and then a button also for each room under the dimmer switch which is just for lamps so it's easy to remember what is what. I also use a 3D printed cover and hid my light switches so that they can't be accidentally switched off permanently, as that was getting on my nerves early on.
I also have a HomePod Mini in each room as well, which I use to turn the lights on or off, so at least you have multiple options, classic switches for everyone, voice control and via the phone/tablet if they are part of the family.
Same--there a few bulbs that I leave on almost 18 hrs a day (for my dog while away). I've been HEAVILY invested in Hue since ~2015. Ten years now...only ever had one bulb failure EVER. They are very well made for what it's worth.
Maybe you can let us know how difficult it is to set up the new bridge.
I tried to order one, but they are sold out already.
As stated above...if you feel like shelling out for 3 or 4 more A19 color variant bulbs...they have starter kits available on Amazon with the new updated hub.
It's not what I had planned to do...but since the new hub supports the extra bulbs (beyond my current 49 I have) I said the hell with it and bought the starter pack.
That's what I did, plus I'm seeing a number of my early bulbs (1st gen) starting to fail after several years, so having spares handy is nice.
I didn't want to get into a prolonged out of stock situation either...
Good luck finding another smart home brand that also doesn’t require you to use an account
Having said that, with native matter over thread you can add them directly to Apple home, no apps needed
I haven’t migrated from HK to matter on my Hue bridge so I’m not sure.
People on Reddit were upset that hue pro is losing native HK support because many of them experience pop corn effect where the a room has many light bulbs but they turn off at different intervals. Not sure if that’s an issue with their matter network or a downside to matter itself.
I migrated from HomeKit to matter the moment I could once HomeKit and the Hue bridge supported it, I actually found matter to be a little more responsive overall, and it seems I've been on mater for about two years looking at when the Hue bridge supported it.
In those two years, my Hue lights have been rock solid with HomeKit via matter, as for that popcorn effect, if I turn a ceiling light on or off that has three to six lights in a single group via the Hue app itself then the bulbs work together immediately in sync, doing the same thing via HomeKit with matter they do respond very quickly, but they do it one by one, same if you turn them off. Could be a matter issue, HomeKit's fault, or maybe just the slow bridge when using matter.
Not really an issue, but it will be interesting to see how the new pro bridge handles it via HomeKit and matter, will be interesting to see if it's the same or more responsive.
Interesting, I'm experiencing the same thing you're describing, now I want to get the new bridge pro to see if that will go away!
