The Philips Hue app has been completely overhauled, making tasks like renaming lights and transferring them between rooms easier. Things that used to necessitate going into the settings, and sometimes two distinct areas in Settings may now be done directly from the main screen.
More is on the way later this year, according to the business, including Dynamic Scenes, in which the colors alter over time. The new app will be available in the next week or two, but Dale Smith of CNET got a sneak peek and believes it lives up to the expectation.
The repositioned controls are actually simpler to identify now that they've been placed where they should've been in the first place. This covers any areas where redundancy has been implemented. In the event that you want to change the lighting in different rooms and zones, you had to go deep into the app's settings menu, where you had to rely on your imagination because everything was plain text with no visual components to assist you. To rename a light and transfer it to a different room, you'd have to go through two submenus — one for lights and one for rooms and zones.
After the update, by tapping the "more" menu (the circle with three dots) at the top of the screen, you may adjust lighting, rooms, and zones no matter where you are inside the Home page with the new app. It's that simple.
How does the performance go?
In terms of performance, the app appears to be significantly improved over prior versions. The animations for the controls and their accompanying animations appear to be faster. Automation (formerly known as routines) performs exactly what you expect them to do, and they do it swiftly and reliably to the point that you don't even notice them.
My favorite enhancement is how much better the upgraded software is at constructing scenes – the distinctive, multi-color light combinations the software creates from an image, which can be selected from either the pre-populated Hue scene gallery or your telephone's own camera roll. In comparison to the prior version, the scenes turned out considerably better, with more intricate and aesthetically pleasing color combinations.
The Philips Hue lighting control app has received an upgrade, according to Signify. The Hue app's fourth version has been rewritten from the ground up to increase functionality and interaction with Hue lighting and accessories. The redesigned Home tab gives you quick access to any room in the house and lets you control hue fixtures from anywhere in the room. In addition, the lighting and scenarios accessible in the room are displayed in a single tile format that is easy to access. Previously, switching between tabs to modify scenes was required, so this is a more practical method to examine the lighting in a room at the same time or independently.
Procedures have been replaced with automation, which may be accessible through the Automation tab. More sophisticated activities, such as multi-user geo-limitation, are now supported via automation than ever before. For example, if you choose Go Home or Leave Home Automation, the Hue app will check if anybody else is in the house before commencing automation, ensuring that the lights are left on while someone is there.
The ability to finish a scene after a particular amount of time or activate a scene before or after sunrise/sunset has been added to automation operating at dawn or sunset. According to Signify, over a hundred little and significant enhancements have been made to the Hue app's interface. In addition, signify will update the Hue app later this year with dynamic scenes that allow light in a specific room or place to be combined with other scene colors, resulting in a variety of new lighting effects.
