Philips releases Hue 'Gen 2' app with Routines, Rooms & other improvements

Posted:
in iPhone edited April 2016
Philips on Thursday released a "Gen 2" Hue app for iOS, updating the tool for its HomeKit-enabled smartbulbs with new features like Routines, and extra options for controlling rooms and scenes.




Routines are schedules based on activities, and specifically geared towards different temperatures and intensities of white light. A "Wake Up" routine, for instance, will gradually increase brightness as the sun rises, while "Nightlight" will output dim warm light so as to make it easier to go back to sleep.

The new app can also control all the lights in a room simultaneously. After grouping lights into custom-named collections in Settings, people can then use voice control keywords to make instant changes.

Scenes, an existing Hue feature, have been improved with the ability to extract color palettes from photos, using five color picks to generate a new scene. Alternately people can build their own scenes, or pick from an assortment of new presets.

Also added are Notification Center widgets. Up to 10 of these can be used to control lights, each supporting multiple rooms and/or scenes.

Finally, the app can now be set to turn lights on or off based on device location. Lights can turn off when an iPhone or iPad has left home, or on when a person returns.

Hue Gen 2 is a free download from the iOS App Store.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    jeromecjeromec Posts: 190member
    Released, really?
    Cannot find it in the US App Store. And checked all apps released by Philips. 
  • Reply 2 of 15
    Q: why not include a link to the App Store?
    A: because the app hasn't released yet (of this writing).
    cornchip
  • Reply 3 of 15
    jeromecjeromec Posts: 190member
    Q: why not include a link to the App Store?
    A: because the app hasn't released yet (of this writing).
    Could not yet find it by searching the App Store, but here is a direct link:
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/philips-hue-gen-2/id1055281310?mt=8
    (nicely provided by a forum contributor on theverge.com)
  • Reply 4 of 15
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    There is a link to the App right in the article.

    I've been using this App as part of their beta program for a while and it is top notch. Worlds beyond the App it replaces.
  • Reply 5 of 15
    Doesn't seem to support Apple Watch which Gen1 did? Hope it's not too far away?  Gen 2 seems quite responsive though and works well with Siri integration while Gen 1 wasn't 100% functional all of the time. 
  • Reply 6 of 15
    chabigchabig Posts: 641member
    It's iPhone only. Naturally it runs in 1x or 2x on the iPad but it's not designed for iPad. Philips' software development efforts are less than impressive, considering they seem to have bold goals for the Hue line of products.
    cornchip
  • Reply 7 of 15
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    some aspects are an improvement. some are not...for instance I can't yet figure out how to pick the exact same color for multiple lights -- used to be able to combine them into one "picker" and pick the color for them all at once. 

    another big change is the focus on rooms, not scenes. (I used to be able to quickly build scenes comprised of lights in different rooms). this room model is nice, but in my mind rooms dont replace house-wide scenes. the only workaround is to create scenes within each room, then link them into one super-scene via the Widget (notification widget) builder. works, but not obvious. 
    edited April 2016 cornchip
  • Reply 8 of 15
    wonkothesanewonkothesane Posts: 1,717member
    some aspects are an improvement. some are not...for instance I can't yet figure out how to pick the exact same color for multiple lights -- used to be able to combine them into one "picker" and pick the color for them all at once. 

    another big change is the focus on rooms, not scenes. (I used to be able to quickly build scenes comprised of lights in different rooms). this room model is nice, but in my mind rooms dont replace house-wide scenes. the only workaround is to create scenes within each room, then link them into one super-scene via the Widget (notification widget) builder. works, but not obvious. 
    I just tried it and think I will go back to Gen 1, While I like some of the improvements they made in the UI, I miss one of the features I have grown fond of: Using the separate app "Hue Sunset", I can define automatic turning off/on of scenes based on the actual sunrise/sunset, while in the Gen 2 app this feature only allows fixed times, AFAI can see. Hopefully, this will be fixed in some future update and I can use just one app for this otherwise really good experience.

    Oh, and of course the other notorious thing: connect > 1 devices to the bridge and only switch off when ALL have left :neutral: 
  • Reply 9 of 15
    2oh12oh1 Posts: 503member
    Is it me, or is this app a billion times more complicated than it should be? And yet, it lacks some pretty basic functionality. I can't rearrange the order of my lights within a room? Why the heck not?  Oh, because you have to go to a completely different part of the app.  Why not make it possible to press, hold, and drag?  I guess that would be too easy.  Who designed this thing?
    edited April 2016 nolamacguycornchip
  • Reply 10 of 15
    2oh12oh1 Posts: 503member
    Oh, good grief. Try renaming a room. You have to go to a completely different part of the app. Who designed this? This app seems so powerful, and I LOVE my Hue lights... but this app needs some work. I feel like Philips got the functionality right, in terms of what the app enables you to do with your lights (and the widget is exactly what I want!), but the way you have to jump through hoops in the app to set things up is poor.
  • Reply 11 of 15
    2oh12oh1 Posts: 503member
    Holy cow.  This app is bad.  Let's say a room has four bulbs.  How do I create different setups for those four bulbs?  Let's say, a Bright setup, an Ambiance setup, a Mood Light setup, etc.  In the old app, they were called Scenes.  I can't figure out how to do that with this new app, and I'm a frigging college graduate.  The design of this app will not make it easy for new users to figure out how to set up Hue.  Yikes, Philips.  This is bad.

    EDIT:  Never mind.  Found it.  Sheesh, the design of this app is bad.
    edited April 2016 cornchip
  • Reply 12 of 15
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    2oh1 said:
    Oh, good grief. Try renaming a room. You have to go to a completely different part of the app. Who designed this? This app seems so powerful, and I LOVE my Hue lights... but this app needs some work. I feel like Philips got the functionality right, in terms of what the app enables you to do with your lights (and the widget is exactly what I want!), but the way you have to jump through hoops in the app to set things up is poor.
    yeah. and it doesn't seem you can change the icon for a room after creation. 

    my biggest peeve about v1 was the inability to order the widget items. this has finally been resolved in v2 with tap-and-hold ordering. 
    edited April 2016
  • Reply 13 of 15
    wonkothesanewonkothesane Posts: 1,717member
    2oh1 said:
    Holy cow.  This app is bad.  Let's say a room has four bulbs.  How do I create different setups for those four bulbs?  Let's say, a Bright setup, an Ambiance setup, a Mood Light setup, etc.  In the old app, they were called Scenes.  I can't figure out how to do that with this new app, and I'm a frigging college graduate.  The design of this app will not make it easy for new users to figure out how to set up Hue.  Yikes, Philips.  This is bad.
    Tap on the room to enter the scenes. I also just found this by accident.
  • Reply 14 of 15
    2oh12oh1 Posts: 503member
    wonkothesane said:

    Tap on the room to enter the scenes. I also just found this by accident.
    Yeah, I found it by accident too.  How do you EDIT a scene after creating one?  I can't figure that out.  This app should still be in beta.  It's a mess.
    edited April 2016
  • Reply 15 of 15
    wonkothesanewonkothesane Posts: 1,717member
    2oh1 said:
    wonkothesane said:

    Tap on the room to enter the scenes. I also just found this by accident.
    Yeah, I found it by accident too.  How do you EDIT a scene after creating one?  I can't figure that out.  This app should still be in beta.  It's a mess.
    There was either an edit button on the top right, or you tap and hold the scene you want to edit until it starts wiggling like iOS icons. I don't recall 100% as I decided to delete the app and revert to Gen 1 after it crashed on me multiple times when trying to edit a scene, it had issues logging onto the myHue account and, as mentioned before, it doesn't replace Hue Sunset at this point, and still does not take into account that sometimes there is more than one person in a household regarding geofencing and the "come home"/"leaving home" function. Maybe next update...
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