Philips Extends HomeKit Support to Hue Tap, Dimmer Switch, and Motion Sensor

With one fell swoop, Philips may now have the quickest responding and most versatile (temperature and ambient light detection) motion sensor in the HomeKit ecosystem. My Elgato Eve Motion sensors are still quite slow to respond after iOS 11 update, so the Bluetooth latency fix must require a firmware update as well. Even with that in place, it might be the case that ZigBee that Philips Hue uses is still quicker. I must return home to try this new update out.

I had no idea my motion sensor had a temperature sensor in it. Did I miss it before somewhere?

I’ve been waiting for this update, it’s looking rather good.

I don't get these WiFi light bulbs. Just get cheapo LED's from Home Depot or Costco and who cares if you leave it on by accident during the day.

Different needs for different people. I understand you don’t have that sort of needs, but some people do. Either that or it’s fun to play around with colours and automation. :)

IFTT...it’s super easy. I forgot to mention, the wife loves them too. They are programmed to blink Orange every time her Bronco’s score! (For me, they blink blue every time the Cowboys score.)

IFTTT integration does work quite well. I have one setup make a Hue bulb flash when an Amazon Echo alarm goes off.

Another IFTTT trigger turns a on a corner accent light at sundown each day, then off at 10PM.

I don't get these WiFi light bulbs. Just get cheapo LED's from Home Depot or Costco and who cares if you leave it on by accident during the day.

The ability to control the color temperature of white light has a huge effect on your mood, energy, and sleep patterns. You can easily program these light bulbs to change white balance and color throughout the day to match your needs.

Plus, the world of automation opens up so many possibilities. When my wife is sleeping, I use the lights for timers. The lights let me know when it is about to rain. Heck, the lights even let me know when the Dallas Cowboys score...which is nice when I cannot watch the game. Plus, the lights come automatically on as I pull into the driveway and so much more.

One of the funnest features though is to be holding my wife in bed and simply say “Hey Siri, turn off the bedroom lights.” :)

I had no idea my motion sensor had a temperature sensor in it. Did I miss it before somewhere?

Me neither! Where did you see it had one?

Yes I am, just tried it for you. I’ve tested this on all my sensors.

Thanks, that’s good, a lot of people will have these sensors will be set not to turn on lights during the day, but we may still like to get notifications of movements.

This is why I invested in Philips. The only company that actually delivers on their HomeKit promises.

I just bought two Dimmer Switches because of this article and cannot get them to work.

I followed the tutorial and removed the switch from any room and setup my buttons in the Home app.

Home recognizes the button presses but doesn’t activate the scenes.

Any ideas?

I'm finding the problem is with the hub (in my case the Apple TV) needing a reboot. For some reason the automations don't all work until a reboot, particularly having just created them. And even then one will decide to not work for no reason whatsoever. It's frustrating.

I hope this is all addressed in an upcoming iOS bug fix. There is so much potential, but when glitches like this occur, it makes the whole notion of a 'smart home' really dumb, because to fix the failure requires more steps than if you didn't have a 'smart' home.