A very long time coming, however so well worth the wait.
Early adopters of the Philips Hue bulbs are used to messing round with third-party apps by now. Philips opening up its APIs at an early stage was a sensible transfer, and the variety of unimaginable apps to have come from which might be nicely value speaking about. On the similar time, one of many huge causes many customers turned to third-party apps within the first place was due largely to how complicated and downright featureless the Philips Hue app was.
Just lately Philips launched Hue Gen 2, a alternative to the unique Hue app. We have been utilizing it for a couple of days now, and it’s for sure probably the most full app you’ll be able to have on your sensible bulbs in the present day.
First issues first — we’ve got Material Design for the brand new Hue app, and it is incredible. There are loads of flat card-like interfaces, a FAB within the backside proper or simply about each display, and the animations for this entire app are implausible. Hue put numerous work into the design, and the app feels a lot nicer than the earlier design.
Philips has executed a unbelievable job right here.
The design is way from the large function right here, although. That honor goes to Hue’s choice to lastly implement room group for its lights. You’ll be able to cut up bulbs up by room, and management whole rooms all of sudden with out having to program totally different scenes for every room. It is precisely as easy appropriately, with out sacrificing particular person bulb controls or the Philips scene system. All the unique Philips options nonetheless exist, however the group has shifted to rooms earlier than scenes, and the distinction that makes is critical. It means you possibly can shortly toggle whole rooms, and for those who’re utilizing a number of colours in a room you see that displayed proper in the primary menu.
Distant entry options that have been added to the unique Hue app have grow to be a fantastic deal extra practical on this second era app as nicely. Auto-dimming lights as you allow the home, or remotely controlling your bulbs from the Hue app is considerably extra dependable. There’s additionally a separate part of the app for establishing Pals of Hue, which incorporates issues like Nest and Amazon Echo integration.
Throughout, this new app is a considerably extra full full thought when in comparison with the earlier expertise. It seems to be nicer, runs smoother, and all the options are good and straightforward to entry. Philips has finished a incredible job right here, and Hue bulbs lastly have a single app that covers all the core options properly. There are nonetheless nice third-party apps on the market for people who’ve already discovered a cushty various, however the core app is unimaginable for now and it is about time.