Apps Philips hue on Apple watch

[Chiguy12]

Finally an app that I was waiting for! Philips hue just updated their app and it will work with the Apple watch Now I can turn my lights on and off without looking for my phone.

 

[sean000]

We just purchased a Philips Hue starter kit of three color lightbulbs and the version 2.0 bridge. It's really awesome! We had a reading lamp hanging over the sofa and a chair that was terrible with a standard 60-watt incandescent. Now we can control the brightness and the color so it's perfect. That alone was worth the cost of the starter kit, and we put the other two bulbs elsewhere in the room. We have plans to get more bulbs for around the house (mostly the less expensive Lux bulbs that are warm-white only), including a light strip and a Hue Go portable light.

There are dozens of Hue apps in the App Store. Many of them offer Apple Watch apps and ratings are usually focused on the iPhone app. Does anyone have any suggestions for their favorite?

I think it would also be cool to have a complication for quick-access, but I can't find any apps with a hue light complication. I would set it up on a watch face I use at home so I can quickly access the light controls. Even a glance would be better than having to go to the app screen (although I will make the Hue app of choice more centrally located on the app screen. I suppose I can also just use "Hey-Siri" but the kids always get concerned when I start talking to Siri.

The Hue system is really cool. It's something I stumbled into as I was researching replacements for our old bulbs now that incandescents are no longer available. This are miles better than the first CFL bulbs we got.

Sean

 

[PR.]

I use the Home app, it purely handles via Home Kit.

Generally I'll make the scenes in the Hue app then sync them to Home Kit, from there I use the Home app on my iPad, iPhone, and Watch. The good thing with doing the work through the Home app is that it ties in with all the iOS services, so I can talk to Siri but also location tracking is done at the system level which I've found much more reliable.

As for the Watch, Home app does have a native app for WatchOS (I believe the Hue app is still streamed off the iPhone) which lists scenes and accessories you've marked as favorites. There's no glances though, but once the app is opened once I find it loads pretty much instantly.

 

[sean000]

I use the Home app, it purely handles via Home Kit.

Generally I'll make the scenes in the Hue app then sync them to Home Kit, from there I use the Home app on my iPad, iPhone, and Watch. The good thing with doing the work through the Home app is that it ties in with all the iOS services, so I can talk to Siri but also location tracking is done at the system level which I've found much more reliable.

As for the Watch, Home app does have a native app for WatchOS (I believe the Hue app is still streamed off the iPhone) which lists scenes and accessories you've marked as favorites. There's no glances though, but once the app is opened once I find it loads pretty much instantly.

Thanks for the suggestion. Right now I'm comparing the Huemote app to the official Philips Hue app. So far I find myself going to the Huemote app more frequently... both on the watch and on the iPhone. The Home app looks nice and like something we would definitely want to step up to if we add other Homekit supported devices.

Sean

 

[sean000]

My wife is an architect who takes lighting our home seriously. I bought the Hue starter kit for her birthday and she loves it. Last night we were talking about what lights to get next and where they should be placed. She was disappointed when I said we would need to use our iPhones to control brightness when some of our fixtures have dimmer switches on the wall. I explained that the lights can only be dimmed through the software and she asked how she would control the lights when her iPhone is not with her? My response was to get an Apple Watch of course

That's out of the question for her. While she admits that my Apple Watch is cooler and more useful than she thought it would be, she still doesn't have any desire for one of her own. I guess I will be ordering some of the Hue dimmer switches

 

[friedmud]

My wife is an architect who takes lighting our home seriously. I bought the Hue starter kit for her birthday and she loves it. Last night we were talking about what lights to get next and where they should be placed. She was disappointed when I said we would need to use our iPhones to control brightness when some of our fixtures have dimmer switches on the wall. I explained that the lights can only be dimmed through the software and she asked how she would control the lights when her iPhone is not with her? My response was to get an Apple Watch of course

That's out of the question for her. While she admits that my Apple Watch is cooler and more useful than she thought it would be, she still doesn't have any desire for one of her own. I guess I will be ordering some of the Hue dimmer switches

I have replaced every bulb in my house with Hue... to the chagrine of my wife ;-) However, it has taken a while... but she now loves it.

A little bit of advice:

1. Get some physical switches. We use Hue Taps ( Philips 452524 Personal Wireless Lighting Hue Tap Switch https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LY42URM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_x.PYwbATT2FNG ) in every room, but the recently released dimmer switches would be good as well ( Philips 458158 Hue Dimmer Switch - Frustration Free Packaging https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014H2OYVW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_XaQYwbMH00QTK ).

Having physical switches everywhere helps TREMENDOUSLY with my wife. She now has no problems hitting a specific setting on the Tap to go into "movie mode" or "reading mode" or whatever else she wants.

2. Get her hooked on Siri. My wife has an iPhone 6S... and with Siri always listening it has now become second nature for her to just talk to Siri to modify the lighting. "Hey Siri, Turn on the corner light", "Hey Siri, Set the livingroom lights to 20%", "Hey Siri, goodnight". It really makes the whole thing much smoother for her.

3. Finally, organization and consistency are KEY. Really THINK about the names of each and every light. Use a Homekit app (I use "Home") to group things together logically into rooms and zones.

If you use the Taps then come up with a consistent scheme and make every room work the same way (For us, the main button is "everything on" and the little button on the right is always "everything off", the other two are specific to the room).

If things are inconsistent or confusing or more difficult than they would be without Hue... you are GOING to hear about it ;-)


Good luck! I can tell you that once you get it all done it's totally worth it. My wife loves it now and we effortlessly control all of the lights in the house.

 

[sean000]

Thanks for the tips! We did get one of the dimmer switches for our living room, and it does help a lot! The tap switch looks cool since you can assign scenes to it, but even just having the On/Off and Dimmer is nice. Another good reason to get a physical switch like this is for guests, including the sitters we hire to watch our kids.

You're right about the potential for confusion on a system that supports so many lights and devices. At work I'm part of a group that manages thousands of networked computers and other devices, hundreds of security groups, group policies, etc... so I'm all about standards and consistency

I had not thought about suggesting my wife use Hey Siri when her iPhone 6 is charging. That could be her gateway feature to using Siri more . She does love the lights though. We live in the Pacific NW where the days get awfully short in the Winter, and what daylight you have might be completely overcast. Having infinitely adjustable control over the color/warmth and brightness of your lights can make a huge difference in how you feel. It's also nice to warm the lights and dim them as bedtime approaches. I was hoping our custom bedtime scene would have a more calming effect on the kids than it has, but oh well...

We will definitely be upgrading more of our lights as time goes on. My wife is excited to get some light strips for accent lights and the Hue-Go.

On the watch app front: The official Hue iPhone app has improved some with recent updates, but the watch app is really just a way to switch between a few scenes. Huemote is better, but neither app runs natively on the watch so they are a little slow to load.

Sean

 

[friedmud]

Thanks for the tips! We did get one of the dimmer switches for our living room, and it does help a lot! The tap switch looks cool since you can assign scenes to it, but even just having the On/Off and Dimmer is nice. Another good reason to get a physical switch like this is for guests, including the sitters we hire to watch our kids.

You're right about the potential for confusion on a system that supports so many lights and devices. At work I'm part of a group that manages thousands of networked computers and other devices, hundreds of security groups, group policies, etc... so I'm all about standards and consistency

I had not thought about suggesting my wife use Hey Siri when her iPhone 6 is charging. That could be her gateway feature to using Siri more . She does love the lights though. We live in the Pacific NW where the days get awfully short in the Winter, and what daylight you have might be completely overcast. Having infinitely adjustable control over the color/warmth and brightness of your lights can make a huge difference in how you feel. It's also nice to warm the lights and dim them as bedtime approaches. I was hoping our custom bedtime scene would have a more calming effect on the kids than it has, but oh well...

We will definitely be upgrading more of our lights as time goes on. My wife is excited to get some light strips for accent lights and the Hue-Go.

On the watch app front: The official Hue iPhone app has improved some with recent updates, but the watch app is really just a way to switch between a few scenes. Huemote is better, but neither app runs natively on the watch so they are a little slow to load.

Sean

Also: for guests... don't forget that you can share your Homekit setup so they can use Siri to control your lights while they're in your house! My sister-in-law just came for a visit for a week... as soon as she got there I shared our Homekit setup with her iCloud username and for the whole week she was able to control the lights using her phone. When she left, I simply revoked that capability.

Super slick!

 

[sean000]

Also: for guests... don't forget that you can share your Homekit setup so they can use Siri to control your lights while they're in your house! My sister-in-law just came for a visit for a week... as soon as she got there I shared our Homekit setup with her iCloud username and for the whole week she was able to control the lights using her phone. When she left, I simply revoked that capability.

Super slick!

I will definitely try that! Although our most frequently visiting family member is an Android user. I will tell him that he will just need to use the LED on his Android phone to light the room

 

[friedmud]

I will definitely try that! Although our most frequently visiting family member is an Android user. I will tell him that he will just need to use the LED on his Android phone to light the room

Serves him right!