The Philips Hue team continues to work hard on software development. After an update for almost all Hue lights was released last week – I have already summarised the new features of software version 1.122.2 for you – it is now the turn of the Hue Bridge again. The Philips Hue control centre has actually received an update every month since July 2023.
Over the past few days, I’ve received more and more messages from you and when I was in the shower this morning, my switched-on Hue lights also flickered briefly. I immediately realized that this could only be the firmware update that some of you have already received. A look at the Hue app confirmed this: Almost all my light bulbs have automatically updated to software version 1.122.2.
That I can still experience something like this. After the prices of numerous Philips Hue products have continued to rise in recent years, they are now going down. Since 1 October, Philips Hue Secure cameras have been offered at significantly lower prices. The price adjustment is permanent and applies to all markets.
The Philips Hue software team really can’t be accused of being idle this year. After numerous app updates, there is now a new firmware for the Hue Secure cameras with numerous improvements and bug fixes. One new feature sounds very promising, but I haven’t been able to try it out myself yet.
Last Tuesday, Philips Hue released a major update for its own app. Among other things, a function was added to start and stop the new sleep automations with a switch. However, so far only Tap Dial Switch, wall switch modules, Tap and Friends of Hue switches are supported. However, this should change soon, as a recently released software update for the Hue Bridge shows.
The Hueblog readership also experienced the problem that I had to report on at the beginning of the week: dimmed Philips Hue lamps can suddenly light up with 100 per cent brightness. Signify, the manufacturer of Philips Hue, had pointed out an error in the communication with the smart home standard Matter.
Last week, Philips Hue released a firmware update for the Hue Bridge, which should have automatically installed on your system by now. It revolves around the software version 1962097030. Among other things, it fixes the problem where some users were unable to connect to Apple Home via HomeKit. As we have now found out, HomeKit is much more stable than the new Matter.
The update of the Philips Hue app to version 5.6, which is expected before Christmas, is still a long way off. However, new firmware for the Hue Bridge has been released in the last few days. You may have already received version 1961135030. You can check this in the settings of the Hue app.
“Never change a running system” – this is a more than well-known wisdom from the IT world. The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, for example, has not received a single firmware update in the past year, with the last update dating back to 29 October 2021. If you have encountered one problem or another during this time, you might be helped with an update now.
There is no official changelog from Philips Hue yet, but I can draw your attention to a software update for the Hue Bridge. Yesterday evening they seem to have started rolling out firmware version 1.56.1956178040. With this update, the date and time of the last activity are displayed again in the settings under Accessories.
Fabian