The Philips Hue app that you use to connect and control your Hue lights and accessories via a Hue Bridge is getting a major Bluetooth upgrade. According to a new report on Hueblog.com, the company is working to integrate the Philips Hue Bluetooth app into the main app.
If you didn’t already know, Philips Hue offers two different mobile apps for controlling its devices. The main app requires a Hue Bridge and lets you control and customize your lights from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. But if you don’t have a Hue Bridge or lost access to the internet, you can still control Bluetooth-enabled Hue lights via Bluetooth. However, it requires a separate app.
This is not an ideal situation, of course. And Signify, the company behind the Philips Hue brand, knows it. As such, the Hue development team is now baking the features of the Philips Hue Bluetooth app right into the main Philips Hue app.
This will be a win-win situation for both consumers and the company. A single, unified app means the development team will need to maintain only one codebase. They will also be publishing only one app on each supported platform. Moreover, since the two apps share several UI elements and features, making changes to them will not require the development team to update the two apps separately.
As for users, a single app eliminates any potential confusion. It also ensures that the same app will let you control your Hue lights whether you have a Hue Bridge or not. It will enable a seamless transition between the two connection methods.
The updated Philips Hue app will roll out in the coming weeks
According to the new report, the Philips Hue app will integrate the features of the Philips Hue Bluetooth app starting with version 4.11. The updated app will release on the Google Play Store as well as the Apple App Store in the coming weeks. It’s unclear though whether the company plans to retire the Bluetooth app. It presumably will at some point in the future, after users have moved on to the new unified app.
There’s also a third app, called Philips Hue Sync. It lets you sync your Hue lights with the content on your TV screen. We presume the company will eventually integrate this ability into the main app as well. Meanwhile, you might want to keep the Philips Hue app updated to avoid missing out on the latest features.
2022-01-27 15:06:46