FabianThe partnership between Sonos and Philips Hue was officially announced at the Hue event in Berlin. The focus is initially on Sonos Voice Control. With Sonos’ locally operating voice assistant, you can now also control Philips Hue lights.
Sonos has now made the final preparations for the launch of the feature and released an app update announcing the control of Hue lights. New firmware for the speakers, which is necessary for integration, is also being rolled out.
On the evening of September 18, the time had come: the new feature was officially activated. You can start the setup in the settings of the Philips Hue app. In the “Smart Home” section, you can connect to Sonos Voice Control. A setup wizard helps you connect to Sonos and link your accounts. This requires a one-time internet connection, after which everything runs locally.
These are the requirements for you
Of course, to use this feature, you will need not only a Hue Bridge (Pro), but also at least one Sonos speaker. Here are the exact system requirements:
- a Sonos voice-enabled speaker
- a Philips Hue Bridge
- linked Sonos and Hue accounts
There is also another limitation that unfortunately makes the whole thing rather uninteresting for me personally: Sonos Voice Control is currently only available in US English and French. Other widely spoken languages, such as Spanish or German, have not yet been integrated.
If language is not an issue for you, you can use numerous voice commands that work locally without going through the cloud. Individual lights, rooms, or zones can be turned on and off. You can activate specific scenes or a specific color. A dimming function is also integrated. All of this works not only with specific commands, but also with relative commands. For example, you can dim the light by 10 percent or make the white a little warmer.
Sonos Voice Control and Philips Hue: Exciting ideas for the future
Both parties have clearly stated that this is only the beginning of their partnership. We can certainly think together about what might be possible in the future.
For example, I could imagine Sonos speakers being integrated into Hue Secure. An alarm from a home theater setup would be much more impressive than the beeping of a camera. Existing Sonos speakers could also be used as a chime for the upcoming Hue Secure Doorbell. That would certainly be very practical.
Another exciting idea: with the help of Hue motion detectors or the new MotionAware technology, the music could simply wander through the house—and always accompany you wherever you are. Do you have any other cool ideas?
Glad there are more voice control options. Alexa on Sonos speakers has been controlling Hue lights for 7-8 years now, but nice to have alternatives. I love the idea of music following you using Hue motion, or even something basic like getting an audio interrupt on Sonos speakers from a Hue video doorbell “someone’s at the door” like you can do with Google Nest doorbells in Alexa rooms using the Sonos in them that are Alexa enabled. But Sonos can barely get a working Sonos app together, I don’t think integration between the two will be more than basic voice commands of lights but one can hope.