While you previously had to take a diversion via the Siri shortcuts and had to make noticeable compromises in terms of design, native widgets have finally been available in the Philips Hue app since the update to version 5.14. This allows you to activate scenes from the home screen or lock screen and switch entire rooms or zones on and off.
The Philips Hue app has received another update and this is particularly interesting for users of an iPhone or iPad. After a long, long time, there are finally widgets for Philips Hue again. I'll explain exactly what you can expect in this article. Several years ago, the widgets in iOS could still be found in the Today view, and Philips Hue widgets were already available back then.
Over the past seven years, Philips Hue has repeatedly tried out small and useful new functions and made them available in Hue Labs. Some of the features made available there for testing even made it into the Hue app. But that's all over now: As Philips Hue has announced in a support document, Hue Labs will be discontinued in June 2024.
This afternoon, Philips Hue released another update in the App Store: version 5.13.0 of the official app is now available for download. And once again, a lot has changed – even more than can be read in the update description in the App Store. For example, the latest version of the app makes it much easier to edit and then save an existing scene.
This morning I received an email from Amazon. “Philips Hue has published information on the product safety of a product you purchased on Amazon.de due to the following risk: manufacturing defect,” it said about an outdoor lightstrip I bought years ago. I was even more surprised by the fact that several internet blogs reported shortly afterwards that Philips Hue had launched a new replacement programme.
With the introduction of version 5.12, Philips Hue has made a small change to the start page of its app, which you may have already noticed. While information on the lamps that are switched on or off was previously displayed under each room name, this space is now empty. “5 lamps are switched on” or “All lamps are switched off” was previously displayed there.
Especially after the introduction of new gradient products from Philips Hue, one name is mentioned again and again in the comments and on social media: Govee. But is the manufacturer from Asia really an alternative? I would like to explain this using the example of the new second-generation Govee Neon Rope Light.
When I took a look at the Hue app on the overcast days, something struck me as odd. The start page with the overview of the rooms seemed so empty. However, I didn't immediately realise what exactly was missing. It was only a comment from a reader that put me on the right track.
It's time again for some updates from the world of Philips Hue. However, I can already tell you that it's not going to be spectacular, as there are probably no new functions. An update for the Hue Bridge was released a week ago. The firmware version 1963089030 merely improves the performance and stability of the system.
It's been a few years since Philips Hue removed the widgets from its iPhone app, but back then they weren't on the home screen anyway. Apple now allows widgets on the home screen – and since the launch of iOS 17, they can even be interactive. This means that actions can be performed without having to open the corresponding app.
Fabian