If you use Philips Hue smart lightbulbs, it’s time to update your app to the 4.0 version for a better and more streamlined experience.
Philips announced a new update to its app on Thursday that features a more intuitive interface, faster performance, and a new, sleek look.
The app, created by Signify, now lets you group your lights into Rooms and Zones to control your lighting as needed. Users can access every light scene from the Hue scene gallery on a single screen, and set them in any Room or Zone with a single tap.
Other improvements include the ability to set scenes, dim and brighten, and toggle lights on and off from the same screen. There’s also a new Automations tab that replaces the old Routines tab, offering more flexibility in customizing the way you use your lights by displaying all your automatons at once.
Another important update in the app is multi-user support for geofencing. This new feature double-checks if other users are in the house before the automations kick in, which Android Police notes should prevent lights from turning on or off if you leave your home but your partner or roommate is still inside.
Philips Hue said the new app was created in collaboration with lighting experts so that each light scene in the Hue scene gallery can bring “professional lighting” into your home. The app update is available to download now on both iOS and Android devices.
Even with all these updates, some users complained on Reddit about the new app, since they have to rework their entire setup and learn an entirely new app configuration.
“In rooms, lights no longer have individual sliders and instead ‘My Scenes’ gets the screen space and mid-screen position,” one Reddit user wrote. “Sucks if you don’t typically launch scenes from the app.”
Philips Hue said the new app was created in collaboration with lighting experts so that each light scene in the Hue scene gallery can bring “professional lighting” into your home.
“So all the convenient Hue widgets I made on my Android phone are failing to load after this update, and the only available widget is 1 tile long and you cannot expand it,” another user said. “Very unhappy with this update.”
It may take a while to get used to the new app, but this is the biggest update to the Philips Hue app ever, so it’s worth checking out.
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