You have to manually enable a scene each time, which is pretty archaic/ dumb for such a smart device. You can't schedule a Sunset light scene to come up at a specific time etc. The problem with this one is that while it offers customization, you can't do anything else with a specific light setting. So if you want to play around with colors and effects and options, this would be the one to get. This probably has the largest customizable options for your bulbs. Hue LIFX Scintillator - this app supports both the Hue bulbs and LIFX bulbs. It doesn't offer effects, but it's clean and pretty, support alarms and timers, with the option to do geeky things as it has a desktop companion app Hue Server that supports scripts and automations directly from your computer. Hue Remote - I think if you just want a straight up remote to turn on/off your lights and create scenes, this is the best looking one. These are some of my recommendations (for iOS) :
#Ambify app for android update
I would still leave the app installed on your phone cause it's the only one that could update your Hue if there's a latest firmware. The good thing is that the Hue has an open API, so there are third party apps that you can use instead of the official one.
It has some useable features like alarms and timers and geofencing, all with caveats - geofencing is too much of a battery-drain to be useful, and while the alarms and timers work solidly, I wish you can set multiple parameters instead of just time (like Wemo's better app) and support effects for each light scenes. And that is a really big problem for a device that you control/ interact with largely from your smartphone. The official iPhone app from Philips is buggy, unintuitive and is either sub-par at its best or bad at its worst. I wish Philips has made a smarter bridge that can store the current light setting in the bridge itself. Basically all light settings are not just controlled by the app on your phone, but remain 'on' as long as the app is running, which is terrible for apps that support light effects (apps like Goldee and Scintillator found a solution by asking access to your mic to save battery life). (Although the bridge is also really dumb, which is a bad choice on Philips' part. I did have a problem connecting the bulbs to an app, and that is where Hue's biggest weakness is - software. People have had problems with disconnections and the bridge not recognizing the bulbs, but I haven't had such a problem so far. So Philips is going to have to really trim the price tag if it wants the accessory to go mainstream.įortunately, the company says it’s expanding the Hue line, with new bulb types coming soon.I think on the hardware side, Hue is really a solid product.
#Ambify app for android software
Imagine light-based games, or location-based apps that light up a room upon entry.īut even cool third-party software won’t make the average consumer fork over $200 for a measly 3 Hue lightbulbs. The aforementioned Ambify app is a testament to that, and the possibilities are endless. Most companies don’t recognize the potential in building out a third party app ecosystem.Īnd there’s plenty of potential here. Good for Philips for recognizing the interest in third party Hue apps and moving fast to get a dev program in place. Also, we want to give them commitment that this is the API and we’re going to support it and it won’t change overnight.” “Now what we want to do as Philips is we actually want to help and grow and encourage this community, and give them tools and proper documentation. “We’re now at a point where there are already about 10 applications that have been shared and built from the unofficial developer community for new applications around Hue,” explained George Yianni, Hue System Architect in an interview. Hue system architect George Yianni explains their reasoning to TechCrunch: Why would you offer tools for folks to create lightbulb apps? Because they were already doing it.
#Ambify app for android full
The new developer program is free, and offers up official Hue APIs, as well as a full software development kit.