Philips Hue zones have been added in the latest update to the iOS app, allowing for more flexible control of your lighting. The option is currently flagged as a beta feature …
The Hue app lets you group lights according to the room in which they are located, enabling you to simultaneously switch on or off all lights within any given room. However, there may be times when you either want to control more than one room at once, or only a subset of lights within a room. That’s what the new Zone feature allows.
For example, if you are going to bed, you may want to switch on both the bedroom lamps and the hall lighting to light your way. You can create a Bedtime zone that includes both bedroom and hall lighting.
Conversely, you may want to switch on only some lights within a room. For example, if you’re sat at one end of your living room, you may want only the lights at that end of the room on, leaving the rest of the room in darkness.
To access the new feature, tap Settings and you’ll see that the Rooms item is now called Rooms & zones. Tap the Create New button and you can choose between a new room and a new zone. Select new zone, and you will then see all your Hue lights throughout the home. Just check the ones you want.
Once done, on the Home screen of the app, scroll down below the rooms to Your Zones. You can then control these just as you would a room.
Philips Hue zones is a very handy feature for those who like to control their lights through the Hue app. Personally, though, I control everything in Apple’s Home app, where I use scenes to achieve the same result.
The update is rolling out today. You may need to prompt the App Store app to download the update.
