Philips Hue announced the release of their updated phone and tablet app in January 2018. The new app has now been globally rolled out hitting the UK this week.

Here is a quick video showing some of its features:

We have had a good play with the updated app and have to say its a big improvement. It is now much easier to control multiple smart lights and set scenes. If you have not yet updated to Philips Hue 3.0 App check for an update on your phone or tablet.

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To celebrate their 3rd birthday Philips Hue just announced 3 pretty big improvements coming to Hue!

Hue Entertainment

Philips has long been talking about “surround sound for the eyes”, Hue Entertainment takes that vision to the next level. It connects TV’s and consoles directly to the lights allowing them to change colour perfectly in time with the film or game you are playing – creating an ultra immersive experience.

Philips commented:

“We want Philips Hue to be a natural ingredient of any gaming, movie or audio experience, complementing action on the screen”

We know what you are thinking and no this does not require another hardware update, this is a software update, however you will need generation 2 hub. The technology does however require the content creators to integrate – from the demo image we can see Disney is already on board.

Brands can sign up to the program from October and it goes live customers in December – just in time for Christmas. See our Smart Home Gift Guide for Christmas 2017.

Hue Multi-packs

Soon you will be able to buy multi packs of Philips Hue bulbs, at a slightly better value  than buying them separately. Although we are yet to see exact UK pricing. We can’t help but feel this is a response to competitors with lower pricing!

Commitment to ZigBee

As Philips Hue works on ZigBee’s lighting standard 3rd party bulbs can be added to its network. Recently IKEA made the jump and launched their own ZigBee bulbs.  This made a lot of people question if this would be enough for Philips to move away from ZigBee to their own closed system.  Fortunately for Hue users Phillips confirmed it is staying with ZigBee and will move to ZigBee 3.0 in 2018.  

You can purchase Philips Hue products from Amazon UK.

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Earlier this year we exclusively confirmed that IKEA Trådfri lights will one day with work with Philips Hue.
This is due to them both using the ZigBee protocol.

Like all smart home users we really wanted to see this happen.  The more tech that works together the better.

(Read Ikea Trådfri and Philips Hue)

We are very pleased to see IKEA were true to their word and a new firmware has just been released. UK users can access it now.

This firmware fixes the interoperability issue. This means once updated you can see and control the lights within the Philips Hue app!

This was confirmed with a small comment in the release notes:

“ZigBee interoperability with 3rd party devices improved”

To add your IKEA bulbs to your Hue family you need to make sure the bulbs are running the latest firmware. To update them you need the TRÅDFRI Gateway .

Eventually the bulbs will come off the shelf with the latest firmware, however this will probably take a while as existing stock will need to sell first.

One day in the future it would be amazing if retailers updated firmware of tech they sold to prevent this issue. However we can not see it happening any time soon. On the positive side IKEA sell in vast volumes so hopefully it will not take long for the new stock to arrive.

IKEA exclusively commented to us:

“We’re thrilled in the interest in TRÅDFRI, our new smart lighting and we’re excited to share that the range is now compatible with Philips Hue and will be compatible with Apple, Amazon and Google in the autumn.

Small changes in lighting can have a great impact on people’s well-being. Many people want to change their light and the atmosphere depending on the activity and we see that life at home can be improved by integrating technology into our home furnishings. With our Home Smart range, we want to make this easy, affordable, and therefore accessible to many people.

In the years to come, there will be additional launches, enabling people to build onto their Home Smart solution.”

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We brought you the news IKEA has moved into home automation lighting with its Trådfri system.
(Read article here http://www.smarthomegeeks.co.uk/news/ikea-moves-into-automation-tech/ )

As we mentioned in the article IKEA’s Trådfri uses ZigBee to communicate. To be precise they work with ZigBee’s standard called ‘ZigBee Light Link’ or ZLL for short. 

( If you fancy a geeky read here is the specification for it:
http://www.zigbee.org/zigbee-for-developers/applicationstandards/zigbee-light-link/ )

The very interesting part is this is the same standard that Philip’s Hue uses. 

You can purchase Philips Hue products from Amazon UK.

Philips Hue White Starter Kit

This has excited lots of Philip’s Hue fans as this should allow interoperability, ZigBees term for working together, between Hue and Trådfri. This would opens up an entire new ecosystem to existing Philips Hue owners.  For example adding IKEA’s furniture compatible Trådfri lights to an existing Hue setup. Not to mention the possibility of adding cheaper lights to an existing Hue setup.

Philips confirmed they will allow it via a statement on their developers forum:

“There is no intention to block any third-party bulbs using ZigBee Light Link from working with the Philips Hue system”

However unfortunately at present the bulbs do not work with Hue.

A further comment from Philips said:

“As the IKEA bulbs do not behave fully compliant with the ZLL standard, they are rejected by the Hue bridge. IKEA is aware of this and informed us their intent is to have the IKEA smart lighting bulbs to work with the Philips Hue bridge. We offer our support to realize this in the future.”

This goes against a basic principle of ZigBee as defined on their website:

“Products with the ZigBee logo work together seamlessly, even if they’re from different companies”

We have asked both Philips, Ikea and ZigBee for a comment and any idea of timescales and we will update you when we here back. 

Hopefully this will be fixed soon as the system has just gone on sale in the UK. The more Smart Tech that works together the better!

**UPDATE 27/4/2017**

We have had an exclusive comment from IKEA and Philip’s after contacting their press office for a comment:

Philip’s Lighting commented:

“Philips Hue follows the ZigBee Light Link standard. Several third party brands have implemented this standard in the way that the Hue system expects and can therefore be connected to the Hue bridge. The Hue app will recognize and display these third party products as generic ZigBee Light Link products. IKEA is free to make the same implementation choices. We cannot confirm if in that case the IKEA products would work with the Hue bridge without having done the required testing from our side.”

IKEA then said:

“We are working on a software update to be compliant with Philips Hue Bridge and will release it as soon as it is ready. We will continue the journey towards the smart home and making our products compatible with others on the market with the ambition to make it simple for the many people to create a better everyday life at home.”

These comments confirm that at some point IKEA Trådfri lights will work with Philips Hue – allowing you do add their bulbs or lights and hopefully control them within the Hue app.

Brilliant news for all Hue owners – follow us on Facebook & Twitter for the latest updates.

PS. You can purchase Philips Hue products from Amazon UK.

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This is a We Own it review!

In this review we are looking at the new Philips Hue Hub 2.0 and a selection of the bulbs and strips.

What does it do?

Philips hue was one of the first wifi lights to come into the market. Since then they have endlessly improved, releasing more bulbs and added functionality.

We know what you’re thinking, added functionality to light bulbs?! These are not just lights they can do so much more for example Sun Rise, Sun Set or different moods for different activities. One of our favourites is focus for when working late.

How does it work & what is the tech?

For the Philips Hue to work you need a Philips hub. This was recently relaunched to be Apple Home compatible. Easiest way to see which Hub is which is:

Square Hub with rounded corners = 2
Round Hub = 1

(Note If buying your kit from eBay or it’s on sale check it’s not the old Hub as lots of these are still being sold).

The lights then communicate to the Hub and you can control them via the App or via other accessories.
The list of accessories is also huge, everything from motion sensors to special switches.

The lights integrate into Apple Home allowing easy control via Apple Home and Siri, commands like ‘Good night’ can turn every light off.

The lights communicate with each other and the bridge via the ZigBee protocol.

How easy is it to setup?

Very easy, the bulbs screw into existing lights and installation is done. All you need to do is plug in the hub to your router and setup is done.

The hue light strips are the same, you just stick them to the item you want to light – for example TV, connect to the hub via the app and done.

One of the great things about this is you can install it anywhere yourself without having to get in a pro.

What’s the connectivity?

Extensive! They call their integrations ‘Friends of Hue’, the list includes all the big names:

Google Home
Apple Homekit
Amazon Alexa
Nest
IFTTT

Logitech Harmony

How much does it cost?

Prices vary as it depends on what lights you want, to give you an idea:

Philips Hue White starter kit (as in the bulbs don’t change colour) with 2 bulbs and hub – £59

Philips Hue Colour and white starter kit with 3 bulbs and hub – £149

Philips Hue White Ambiance Single Bulb – £29.95
Philips Hue Colour and white Single Bulb – £49.95

Philips Hue Lightstrip – £69.99

What’s it like living with it?

Great fun as well as very useful! It never gets boring when family comes over and kids want to dance to the flashing lights, or when your working late and you need bright ‘day light’. We’ve never had any issues with any and we own a lot of Hue

What are our final thoughts?

These are epic – one of our favourite smart home gadgets. Very few downsides, apart from the price but that said the bulbs have a much longer life than standard bulbs and use a lot less energy.

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