FabianI have reported about BridgeWrapper several times in the past. With the small Alexa skill, more than one bridge could be connected to Amazon's voice assistant. A feature that Philips Hue itself has not been able to get up and running until now.
Unfortunately, it already became apparent at the end of last year that BridgeWrapper was too successful. The Remote Hue API used by the skill offers a maximum of 50,000 queries per day, which BridgeWrapper has already exceeded with 600 to 700 people actively using it.
About a month ago, the skill had to be discontinued completely. The developer justifies this with the costs for the Alexa API. “As you can imagine, a smart home skill has to make a lot of API calls”, the developer writes. “My Skill is free, so I don't have a source to fund those calls. I have reached a cost that I can no longer support myself.” BridgeWrapper was then discontinued on 4 July 2023.
Matter as the next option?
Should you use more than one bridge and also rely on Alexa, then Matter could be the next opportunity. As soon as the new smart home standard comes to the Hue Bridge via a firmware update, the Philips Hue lamps will be able to communicate with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant in this way. There should then no longer be a bridge limitation.
After Matter was supposed to launch in the first quarter of 2023, Philips Hue then postponed the launch indefinitely. As far as I am informed, the final test phase is currently underway. I expect a corresponding announcement in the coming weeks.
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This would mean configuring all the routines etc with Alexa & just using the bridges as a dumb device to connect each bulb/accessory to Alexa?
I hadn’t thought of it that way but it would also get round the single bridge remote access problem also as you could remotely access them from Alexa…
As matter is supposed to work locally on the network it shouldn’t add any significant delay in the execution & you could mix combinations of routines in the hub & Alexa to optimise performance vs complexity….
Hmmmm… Something to think about…
(Although the Alexa app is awful for searching for devices & configuration but I’m sure it would work).