Select the perfect scene with ease in the improved Home tab
The app’s transformation is visible as soon as you open the redesigned Home tab. In this tab, users are now able to see all their lights and scenes in one glance with Tile View, making it possible to quickly control lights and set scenes without the need to navigate between different screens. The Home tab in the new app also features a Hue scene gallery, which allows users to easily discover and preview the collection of Philips Hue scenes, handcrafted by the brand’s lighting experts. Another addition to the Home tab is the much-requested ability to switch between multiple Hue Bridges quickly. Users that have different homes in the same app, or separate Hue Bridges for different areas of the home, will now be able to control their smart lighting faster than ever before.
Access a suite of expanded automation possibilities
In the new app, users will no longer set routines — they will set automations instead. The former Routines tab is replaced by the new Automations tab, which offers more advanced options for customization, enabling users to easily personalize their smart lighting.
One of the most requested and anticipated updates is also now available: multi-user geofencing. When using a Coming home or Leaving home automation, the Hue app now checks whether anyone else is home before running the automation. So, when the person controlling the automation leaves the house, any household members also using the Hue app that are still at home will not be left in the dark.
Last but by no means least, the way automations based on sunset and sunrise work in the app has been improved. Users are now able to choose sunset, sunrise or a specific time to start the automation, as well as to turn off their lights after the automation is over.
Enhanced user friendliness and customization
In the fourth generation Hue app, over a hundred large and small improvements to the design were made, resulting in an app that is easier and more enjoyable to use day to day. For example, the settings for lights, Rooms, and Zones can now be configured in each section of the Home tab. If you want to add a new Hue light to a Room, this can now be done from the Room tab itself, as well as in Settings. In other words, the most-used configurations are in a more convenient place.
Organizing Entertainment areas is also easier — and more fun — with a new setup in an isometric 2.5D view to determine the exact location and height of the lights. To make it even simpler, the lights in the setup change their color so users know exactly which ones they refer to.
