This function has been included in Hue Labs for some time now, and will soon also be found in the automations of the Hue app: Mimic Presence. The presence simulation is supposed to increase the security of your home when you are not at home. In any case, security is a topic that Philips Hue will probably deal with even more intensively this year.
But let’s move on to presence simulation, which is available in Hue Labs so far. Soon it should be included in the automation section of the Hue app and thus be even easier to configure.
The light is switched on as if someone were at home.
What does the automation do? In principle, this is quickly explained: it switches the light on and off in such a way that it appears from the outside as if someone is at home.
For the configuration of this automation, you will not only be able to select several rooms and zones, but also individual lamps. Exciting: If the automation is activated, the lights can either be automatically controlled independently throughout the day – or only between sunset and sunrise.
The Hue Bridge will then automatically select different scenes and also switch off the lights in the individual rooms in between. This is to imitate the behaviour that one would expect for the respective type of room.
Note: This article contains affiliate links. We receive a commission for purchases via these links, which we use to finance this blog. The purchase price remains unchanged for you.
Is it a scheduled automation, or do I manually turn it on when I leave home, then turn it off when I return home? Thx for the clarification.
It doesn’t do anything other than turn all the lights on at the same time and leave them on until dawn. I’ve marked the rooms as living room, bedrooms and staircases, etc. and I only want the lights on when it’s dark (i.e. sunrise to sunset) but all that happens is that all the lights in all the rooms just turn on sometime after sunset and then just stay on all night. It hardly mimics presence in the house if all the bedroom lights are on all night. It’s no better than the mechanical timers that I hoped that Hue would replace. Waste of money so far.