Philips Hue App Gets Design Overhaul

Signify today announced the launch of a redesigned version of the Philips Hue app for controlling Hue lighting setups. The fourth iteration of the Hue app was rebuilt from scratch to improve functionality and to enhance communication with Hue bulbs, lamps, and accessories.

hue app main screen
A reimagined Home tab offers access to each room in the home so you can get to your Hue lights by room with a tap. Drilling down into a room shows available your lights and scenes all in one easy access tiled view. Prior to now, setting scenes required switching tabs, so this is a more streamlined way of controlling lights in a room together or individually.

hue app room settings 3
The Home tab also houses the Hue Scene Gallery, a feature that existed before but should now be easier to get to. For those that have multiple bridges, there's now a toggle to swap between them to access different lights in the home.

hue app color picker 4
Routines have been eliminated in favor of Automations, accessible through the Automations tab. Automations support more advanced actions than before, including multi-user geofencing. With this feature, if a Coming Home or Leaving Home automation is used, the Hue app will check to see if anyone else is home before running the automation, so the lights don't get turned off when someone is still in the house.

hue app automations
Automations that run at sunrise or sunset have been improved with options to end a scene after a set time or to activate a scene at a time before or after sunrise/sunset rather than right at sunrise/sunset.

Signify says that more than a hundred other small and large improvements have been added to streamline the design of the Hue app. The design of the Home tab, for example, makes it easier to configure your setup from multiple places, and if you have an Entertainment Area set up it's easier to customize with a revamped isometric 2.5D view. There continue to be widgets and shortcuts available, as well as Hue Labs features to play with.

Later this year, Signify will further enhance the Hue app with dynamic scenes, which will let the lights in a set Room or Zone transition through different colors of a scene, allowing for all new lighting effects.

The Hue app is available from the iOS App Store for free, and Hue lights can be purchased from the Hue website. Updating to the new app will require migrating settings and scenes, a process that should be hassle-free.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
iphone 16 pro models 1

Here's How the iPhone 17 Pro Max Will Compare to the iPhone 17 Pro

Saturday July 5, 2025 1:00 pm PDT by
Apple should unveil the iPhone 17 series in September, and there might be one bigger difference between the Pro and Pro Max models this year. As always, the Pro Max model will be larger than the Pro model:iPhone 17 Pro: 6.3-inch display iPhone 17 Pro Max: 6.9-inch displayGiven the Pro Max is physically larger than the Pro, it has more internal space, allowing for a larger battery and...
iPhone Car Key Kia

Here's Which Vehicles Offer iPhone Car Keys

Sunday July 6, 2025 3:03 pm PDT by
In 2020, Apple added a digital car key feature to its Wallet app, allowing users to lock, unlock, and start a compatible vehicle with an iPhone or Apple Watch. The feature is currently offered by select automakers, including Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and a handful of others, and it is set to expand further. Apple has a web page with a list of vehicle models that ...
imac video apple feature

Apple Launching These 15+ Products Later This Year

Sunday July 6, 2025 8:05 am PDT by
The calendar has turned to July, meaning that 2025 is now more than half over. And while the summer months are often quiet for Apple, the company still has more than a dozen products coming later this year, according to rumors. Below, we have outlined at least 15 new Apple products that are expected to launch later this year, along with key rumored features for each. iPhone 17 Series iPho...
airpods pro 2

AirPods Pro 3 to Help Maintain Apple's Place in Earbud Market Amid Increasing Low-Cost Competition

Thursday July 3, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple's position as the dominant force in the global true wireless stereo (TWS) earbud market is expected to continue through 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast outlines a 3% year-over-year increase in global TWS unit shipments for 2025, signaling a transition from rapid growth to a more mature phase for the category. While Apple is set to remain the leading brand by...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
Prime Day 25 Feature Warm Triad

The Best Early Prime Day Deals on Apple Products

Saturday July 5, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Amazon is soon to be back with its annual summertime Prime Day event, lasting for four days from July 8-11, the longest Prime Day yet. As it does every year, Prime Day offers shoppers a huge selection of deals across Amazon's storefront, and there are already many deals you can get on sale ahead of the event. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a ...

Top Rated Comments

Mr X Avatar
54 months ago
That's great but they keep releasing more and more lights/products yet don't increase hub capacity (I don't think they ever have) which is still recommended at 50! That means running more than one hub, which is a pain switching and only one can remote connect to unless you use a work around like Homekit/Google. Come on Philips/Signify - get with the times if you want people to keep buying more and more kit
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarpalMac Avatar
54 months ago

That's great but they keep releasing more and more lights/products yet don't increase hub capacity (I don't think they ever have) which is still recommended at 50! That means running more than one hub, which is a pain switching and only one can remote connect to unless you use a work around like Homekit/Google. Come on Philips/Signify - get with the times if you want people to keep buying more and more kit
This. I am running three hubs now (using one for those purely running off timers/sensors so keeping separate, I could get away with two) and it is a total PITA. They need to either sort the hub situation or the software to handle multiple hubs without having to keep manually switching between them. Due to Alexa only supporting one hub now I have to use Alexa for downstairs and Google for upstairs voice control.

I'd also like to see the long term Lab items (like senor pairs) promoted properly into the main app. Clearly enough people are using them.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PumaUK7 Avatar
54 months ago
Omg, why on earth have they made the light selection go side to side off the screen?! Absolutely awful. Absolute pain to quickly adjust multiple lights within a single room now without doing so as a scene, and even that means scrolling from side to side to find the right one now.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zachz Avatar
54 months ago
About time. The app for me has been terrible to use for years. Excited to try the new design
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Khedron Avatar
54 months ago
"Modern" trash design. Why do I need to horizontally scroll scenes and lights when 1/3 of the screen is empty?

Attachment Image
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarpalMac Avatar
54 months ago

They have made it worse…they have removed widgets and made it go through shortcuts
You can have a shortcut to turn one light on…it’s all or nothing
It's not come through on my iPhone but has on my S10. First impression is that it is awful, I now have to turn on each light individually in a room to then access the slider to control its brightness. If I select an individual light that is already on it takes me to the colour adjust menu where another tocuh is required just to trigger the brightness controller. I then have to exit out of that screen to select the next bulb, rinse, repeat.

Also I can no longer switch quickly between hubs, it forces me each time to log in via out-of-home control, before I can access a local hub.

Far, far, farrr too many clicks/touches required. What a step backwards. Does anybody at Philips ever do any usability testing on their software?

Edit: Just to add, the software updates the Hub, it appears you cannot roll back to a previous version of the app once you have updated. :-(
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)