Smart home lighting maker Philips Hue is launching a major redesign of its popular mobile app, parent company Signify announced today, with the update set …
Smart home lighting maker Philips Hue is launching a major redesign of its popular mobile app, parent company Signify announced today, with the update set to roll out globally over the next week. And while the announcement is rife with all the typical marketing hoopla about improved performance, more intuitive controls and streamlined automations, after testing a preview version of the app for the last week, I can say with some authority that it’s not entirely hyperbole. And let me tell you, I put this app through the ringer. Most people I know might pepper their homes with a few smart lights here and there, I manage a veritable menagerie of Philips Hue devices in mine. At last count, I was running 14 color bulbs, six white ambiance lights, two white ambiance floodlights and one boring old white bulb that’s stuck on the same slightly warm color temperature. Yet despite such an unwieldy collection of smart lights, figuring out how to navigate the graphically more intense controls was actually pretty easy and, dare I say, intuitive. The new Hue app retains most if not all of the same functions as the previous version — it just shuffles them around and groups them together a bit differently, while adding more color cues that let you know which bulbs are set to what color and brightness settings. However, rather than confusing matters, the relocated controls are actually easier to find now that they’ve been put where (to be honest) they really ought of gone in the first place.
