If you’ve got Philips Hue lighting in your home then you’ll want to make sure to upgrade to the latest version of the associated iOS app.
Making the company’s smart home lighting even smarter — both figuratively and literally — the app has received a visual overhaul, along with a number of nifty new features. And the gratefully received return of an old favorite.
“Our new look app is easier to use than ever,” said Jasper Vervoort, Head of Marketing and Product Management, Home Systems & Luminaires at Philips Lighting. “New features include shortcuts which make setting up rooms a breeze, new color pickers as well as 30 new scenes that allow instant scene setting to match your mood or that special moment. In designing the upgrade, we took advice from lighting designers, user experience specialists and, most importantly, from our customers. The result is an app befitting the world’s most loved smart home lighting system.”
The app now comes with 30 new “scenes,” which lets you opt for specific lighting pre-sets such as “golden pond,” “blue lagoon” or “lake mist.” Niftily, you can also create your own versions by loading in a photo, and then letting the app extract the most prominent colors.
Got a photo you snapped on holiday in which the sun was absolutely gorgeous? Now you can do your best to recreate that ambience at home. Want to make your kitchen look like a misty lake? Knock yourself out!
In a move that’s likely to be met with positivity from users, the app also once again restores the simple color picker wheel which was absent in version 2.0 of the app. While Philips’ decision to replace it with a full-screen color map wasn’t bad, it was also a definite step down, which is why it’s nice to see the company reverse its previous decision.
If you want to get hold of the Philips Hue app, you can download it here. The upgrade is rolling out throughout today, so if it doesn’t yet show in your local App Store, then check back later to upgrade to version 3.0. A set of Philips Hue lights starts at $99.
