Philips Releases Dramatically Improved Hue Mobile App To Control Connected Lights

I’ve been using Philips Hue white and color ambience lights around my house since they gained HomeKit support last fall, but the mobile apps that control the lights have never felt top notch. Earlier this week, Philips moved its Hue mobile apps to legacy status with a name change and icon tweak, and today Hue users are finally getting their hands on the latest and greatest Philips Hue apps for iOS and Android. The design improvements alone are dramatic and worth the wait, but Philips packs in some new features and tricks as well.

The old app fit in fine on iOS 7 and beyond, but it relied on a basement menu style which has fallen out of fashion and organization wasn’t as simple as it could be. The new Philips Hue app that replaces the old one has a much more modern look with a navigation bar for switching between lights and scenes or rooms and routines and more.

Aside from design, the old app also lacked great management for how it thought about lights in various rooms. Philips Hue lights work with Apple’s HomeKit framework, so I’ve instead relied on the excellent Home app to manage most of the experience, with the free OnSwitch app helping in some cases.

The new Philips Hue app better addresses grouped lights with a new feature called Rooms:

Philips is also getting better at automation with a new Routines feature:

The latest app includes new preset Scenes to try as well:

In addition to new Rooms and Routines features and updated Scenes, the new Philips Hue app features new widget options that combine rooms and scenes, and home and away mode let you automate turning lights on and off based on your location.

All in all, the brand new Philips Hue app will likely be a very welcome addition to Hue light owners. Controlling lights around your home with your iPhone is really fun, but it all starts with a great app experience and today’s release makes great improvements there.

The new Philips Hue app should be hitting the App Store soon; the legacy Philips Hue controller app is sticking around for now as well for users who prefer it. [UPDATE 11:30 am ET: The new app version is now available.]