Philips Hue Secure Contact Sensors Gain HomeKit Support

[tazinlwfl]

How we are over a decade into this stuff and there’s still nothing on the market that will simply announce on all my HomePods which door has been opened?

Wouldn’t you be able to use a Shortcut with the Intercom command? Have the shortcut run when triggered by a HomeKit device?

ETA: Looks like you’d need something like Pushcut. The Free version would probably satisfy what I’m trying to do.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Ya, my two hub based smart home products (Lutron Caseta previously and now Phillip Hue) are light years more reliable than anything just running off WiFi.

Just started transition from smart switches over to smart bulbs recently and love it. Didn't realize how much of a difference color temperature made. Plus it's nice having more granular control.

Color temperature and hubs are two of my lightbulb moments (pun intended) lately as well. Now that I know about and notice color temperature I can’t un-see it everywhere. I drive people crazy replacing light bulbs now.

And yeah it’s amazing the difference using a protocol designed for it, wired directly to Ethernet, doing one job and doing it well. Versus wifi which was simply not meant for this.

 

[svish]

Good to know that it is gaining HomeKit support

 

[hagar]

A combination of a lack of standards, and of Apple treating HomeKit like a back burner hobby project.

Actual security systems have had that feature for years, and I also think until recently Apple specifically was reluctant to get into any security aspect of it due to potential liability.

Considering their top pitch for the Apple Watch and iPhone is literally that it decreases your chance of dying in a horrible accident, I'd hope they are more comfortable approaching the market now.

Exactly, Apple doesn’t care about HomeKit at all.
- HomePod should be able to announce things.
- HomePod should function as a sirene.
- iPhones should be able to receive HomeKit notifications.
- Etc.

This should all be supported natively without third party apps, hacks or services. Low hanging fruit.

 

[wegster]

Meanwhile, Aqara has their Matter/Thread sensors on sale for $20 for Black Friday and they come right up in Home - unlike some of their other stuff, no Aqara hub needed. No experience RE: longevity but their stuff is generally well-liked from a reliability standpoint, and is half the price.

I have tons of Hue, but only where it 'really needs to be' - their bulbs are better and more reliable vs any random wifi bulbuls (Hue = Zigbee, as is Aqara for most devices), but way over-priced IMO on much of it.

 

[George1986]

Did anyone succeed to add the contact sensors to Homekit?

 

[Dakko]

Did anyone succeed to add the contact sensors to Homekit?

I am having the same problem. I read on a Hue forum that re-pairing the Hue Bridge to Homekit worked for a user. Did not work for me.

 

[George1986]

Hello. I managed to solve the issue. I contacted Philips and they sent some instructions:

0. Make sure that the Contact Sensors are added to Philips Hue App.

1. Check under Hue app->Settings->Smart home->Siri & Apple Home->Settings if "Unlink from Apple Home" is displayed.

If the option to "Unlink from Apple Home" is shown than delete the Hue bridge using the Apple Home app: Apple Home app->3 dots top right->Home settings->Hubs & bridges->Click on bridge and delete.

2. Power cycle the Hue bridge and wait 1,5 minutes for it to fully start again. Within 10 minutes, use the Apple Home app to add the Hue bridge Tap the big button on the Hue bridge
In the Apple Home app, select the Hue bridge in the “Add accessory” section. It shall be displayed as “Bridge name – xxxxxx” (where xxxxxx are the last digits of the bridgeID).

Follow the instructions on the screen.

Interesting is that I had two options to add the Bridge: Homekit and Matter. After I have added the Bridge again by selecting Homekit option, all the devices including the Contact Sensors have been added to my Home, one by one and I was able to add a room to my Contact Sensors and also to select some types: Window, Door, etc.
By adding the Bridge in this way, even the name of every device (light bulbs) was different then the name that they had when I was linking the Bridge to Honekit fron Philips Hue App (usualy the description used in Philips App) and also Adaptive Lighting was a new option to enable or not.

 

[Dakko]

Hello. I managed to solve the issue. I contacted Philips and they sent some instructions:

0. Make sure that the Contact Sensors are added to Philips Hue App.

1. Check under Hue app->Settings->Smart home->Siri & Apple Home->Settings if "Unlink from Apple Home" is displayed.

If the option to "Unlink from Apple Home" is shown than delete the Hue bridge using the Apple Home app: Apple Home app->3 dots top right->Home settings->Hubs & bridges->Click on bridge and delete.

2. Power cycle the Hue bridge and wait 1,5 minutes for it to fully start again. Within 10 minutes, use the Apple Home app to add the Hue bridge Tap the big button on the Hue bridge
In the Apple Home app, select the Hue bridge in the “Add accessory” section. It shall be displayed as “Bridge name – xxxxxx” (where xxxxxx are the last digits of the bridgeID).

Follow the instructions on the screen.

Interesting is that I had two options to add the Bridge: Homekit and Matter. After I have added the Bridge again by selecting Homekit option, all the devices including the Contact Sensors have been added to my Home, one by one and I was able to add a room to my Contact Sensors and also to select some types: Window, Door, etc.
By adding the Bridge in this way, even the name of every device (light bulbs) was different then the name that they had when I was linking the Bridge to Honekit fron Philips Hue App (usualy the description used in Philips App) and also Adaptive Lighting was a new option to enable or not.

Thanks! Everything now works.