Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Philips Hue unveils connected light with lighting recipes to fit your daily routine

Connected lights aren’t just about creating a cool vibe; they can actually impact your mood and health. Philips Lighting has unveiled a new connected light that offers a range of white light shades to create the perfect atmosphere to energize you throughout the day. With Philips Hue white ambiance, your light can gradually brighten to wake you up naturally, dim to facilitate falling asleep, minimize blue light if you get up during the night, and more.

The company’s starter kit includes two smart bulbs that emit shades ranging from cool daylight (6500k) to warm white (2200k). It also comes with the Philips Hue dimmer switch and bridge, which supports Apple HomeKit. With the latter, users can control their lights with Siri voice control and Apple Watch, as well as the Philips Hue app.

Through the app, a new “Routines” feature allows users to design lighting schemes around their everyday activities. The “Wake up” routine, for example, imitates sunrise by getting gradually brighter, while “Go to sleep” dims gently until the light goes off completely. “Nightlight” minimizes blue light so that it doesn’t interfere with the sleep cycle of those who get up during the night. These “light recipes” are designed with specific daily tasks in mind, from working to reading to relaxing and more.

“Light impacts us both physically and emotionally, we experience this every day when waking up and going to sleep,” said Chris Worp, leader of Philips home lighting business, in a press release. “With Philips Hue white ambiance, we want to give people control of the impact that white light has on their wellbeing at home, particularly around day to day routines. By having every shade of white light at your fingertips, you can choose the perfect light you need to feel better, whether you want an energizing light for exercising or a dimmed nightlight for winding down to sleep.”

Philips Hue lights work with numerous smart devices, including Amazon Alexa, Nest Learning thermostat, Nest Cam, Nest Protect, and more. They are also able to interact with over 600 third-party apps. The company’s white ambiance lights will be available starting this spring, with integrated luminaires coming to Europe and North America in the fall.

Stephanie Topacio Long
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…
Why smart lights are the perfect entry point to the smart home
philips hue updates old products adds gradient strip iris lifestyle living room

Getting started with building a smart home can be daunting. The benefits are sort of nebulous at first, and the up-front cost can be off-putting. There are a lot of ways to approach the idea of building out a smart home, but we contend that smart lights are the best first step on that journey.
You can start small
If you want to upgrade your home's entire lighting setup at once, you can, but that can be pricy. Luckily, you can buy a single smart bulb for $20 without a separate hub and enjoy the benefits right away, and then decide to expand. Mix and match brands one light at a time to find the combination of cost and value that works best for you, then go all-in with whatever lighting system you like best.
The benefits are visible

The benefits of many smart home devices aren't quite as palpable as a smart light's. A smart light changes the mood of your entire home and reinvents your relationship with a light switch. Meanwhile, smart speakers can amount to a spooky robot ghost lady that lives in your kitchen. A smart lock gives you a different way to fumble for your keys. A smart thermostat operates quietly in the background with the end result being a comfortable temperature. These benefits are harder to come to grips with than turning your living room purple whenever you want.
Smart lights are idiot-proof
Setup for smart lights is painfully easy. It's often little more than turning off the light, popping out the old bulb, putting in the new one, turning the light on, and pairing with your phone. It's hard to mess up. In a worst-case scenario, you'll need to reset the bulbs and pair again. In the vast majority of instances, you'll be dealing with the same standard size of socket, so not much chance of getting the wrong kind of bulb.
Your phone has great support
Smart lights are one of the product categories with the most consistent support for smart home platforms like Google Home and Apple HomeKit. These are well-integrated with the phone you already have, giving you an easy way to issue voice commands to your lights. These mechanisms are in addition to native Android and iOS apps that often provide home screen widgets and advanced functions you'll need to dip into anyway during setup.

Read more
Smart lighting voice control guide
Philips Hue Appear Outdoor smart light.

While some of your fondest memories of home may be flicking a light switch off and on exactly 31 times before leaving a room, those days of physical input are quickly being relegated to the history books thanks to the smart home. One of the biggest conveniences of smart lighting is being able to control it all with your voice. Light systems like Philips Hue support all of the  popular voice assistants like Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Google Assistant. How do these systems work, how do you set them up, and can they really understand your commands? Here are the the answers to all of these questions and more.
What are voice-activated devices?

Voice-activated devices record a user's audio commands and send those clips to remote servers to translate. It then returns commands or information to the device. In the case of smart lighting, a command can look like saying, "Hey Google, turn off all the lights," to your Google Nest Mini, which then shoots the clip over your home Wi-Fi network to Google's servers that translate it into a proper device command. That command is sent back to the Nest Mini, which figures out you want to do something with your smart light bulbs, sends that command to your lights, and voilĂ , your lights get turned off.

Read more
How to use Philips Hue lights with geofencing
The Philips Hue app.

Smart lights are one of the greatest inventions since ... well, since Edison invented the light bulb. With smart lights, you can automate the lights in your home, access vast color spectrums, and create easy holiday lighting displays. One of the easiest ways to automate your lighting and create a safe entryway and a bright, welcoming home, is to use geofencing with smart lights such as Philips Hue.
What is geofencing?

A "geofence" is the virtual boundary you set for yourself and your devices.

Read more