Android By Russell Holly Jan. 16, 2014 9:29 am
They are expensive, they are beautiful, and they are strangely addictive despite being light bulbs. Philips Hue bulbs are far from the only smart bulbs out there, but they have something no one else is able to offer: any number of third party apps.
[Need a refresher? Check out our full Philips Hue review for background.]
Hue apps exist in many colorful forms, because Philips has encouraged interactivity with their APIs. Developers have nearly the same set of controls that Philips has in their own app, and with that they are encouraged to push the limits and make something even better than what Philips has come up with.
What’s especially curious about this ecosystem is the variety of apps that now exist. On Android in particular, the apps that are available range wildly from being powerful and functional to being beautiful and simple. It’s hard to say which is the “best” but here’s a look at five of the top Hue apps for Android, each of which offers something unique.
[h=3]Hue by Philips[/h]To get the best understanding of what your bulbs are capable of, you should keep the Hue app from Philips installed on your phone/tablet. While it is not nearly as capable as some of the other apps, it is a great-looking app that is a lot of fun to use. Its color map allows you exact control over your bulbs in a fantastically visual format, which is surprisingly absent from almost every other app out there.
This free Hue app is also great for alarms and location-based light recipes, but once you have more than a page or two of connected light recipes it becomes tedious to use. If you’re a new Hue owner with just the starter kit, or if you are usually only controlling one or two bulbs at a time, this is a great app to have.
[h=3]Lampshade.io[/h]While Philips has the best looking and most enjoyable-to-use Hue app for Android, no one currently beat the functionality of Lampshade.io. You just have to get past how entirely unpleasant the app is to work with…
Lampshade.io gives users a ton of extra features over the Hue app. The first and arguably most important feature is the ability to assign bulbs into rooms. This makes it easy to control groups of lights all at once, with very little effort. For whatever reason, this is something most apps seem to gloss over, and it makes things much easier if you have a lot of Hue bulbs in your house. You can also assign these rooms into widgets for your phone, giving you the ability to control specific rooms from a lockscreen or homescreen without needing to open the app.
Just like Philips Hue app, there’s a selection of light recipes you can choose from as well as the ability to create your own. Lampshade.io calls these “moods”, and you can create either static color patterns or animate to suit your needs. One such example is the Sunset mood, which changes the colors over a couple of minutes to resemble a setting sun before shutting the lights off entirely. You can even share moods that you have created so other Lampshade users can take advantage of them.
Visually, Lampshade.io is rough around the edges. It follows a lot of the basic Android design guidelines, but overall is is pretty clear there’s not a UI designer involved in the project. It’s highly functional, and probably the most powerful Hue app for Android right now, but it is in serious need of a facelift.
Also, if you are a real power user, Lampshade.io’s paid version is compatible with Tasker so you can really take your geekery to the next level.
Next page: More of the best Hue apps for Android…
More...
[Need a refresher? Check out our full Philips Hue review for background.]
Hue apps exist in many colorful forms, because Philips has encouraged interactivity with their APIs. Developers have nearly the same set of controls that Philips has in their own app, and with that they are encouraged to push the limits and make something even better than what Philips has come up with.
What’s especially curious about this ecosystem is the variety of apps that now exist. On Android in particular, the apps that are available range wildly from being powerful and functional to being beautiful and simple. It’s hard to say which is the “best” but here’s a look at five of the top Hue apps for Android, each of which offers something unique.
[h=3]Hue by Philips[/h]To get the best understanding of what your bulbs are capable of, you should keep the Hue app from Philips installed on your phone/tablet. While it is not nearly as capable as some of the other apps, it is a great-looking app that is a lot of fun to use. Its color map allows you exact control over your bulbs in a fantastically visual format, which is surprisingly absent from almost every other app out there.
This free Hue app is also great for alarms and location-based light recipes, but once you have more than a page or two of connected light recipes it becomes tedious to use. If you’re a new Hue owner with just the starter kit, or if you are usually only controlling one or two bulbs at a time, this is a great app to have.
[h=3]Lampshade.io[/h]While Philips has the best looking and most enjoyable-to-use Hue app for Android, no one currently beat the functionality of Lampshade.io. You just have to get past how entirely unpleasant the app is to work with…
Lampshade.io gives users a ton of extra features over the Hue app. The first and arguably most important feature is the ability to assign bulbs into rooms. This makes it easy to control groups of lights all at once, with very little effort. For whatever reason, this is something most apps seem to gloss over, and it makes things much easier if you have a lot of Hue bulbs in your house. You can also assign these rooms into widgets for your phone, giving you the ability to control specific rooms from a lockscreen or homescreen without needing to open the app.
Just like Philips Hue app, there’s a selection of light recipes you can choose from as well as the ability to create your own. Lampshade.io calls these “moods”, and you can create either static color patterns or animate to suit your needs. One such example is the Sunset mood, which changes the colors over a couple of minutes to resemble a setting sun before shutting the lights off entirely. You can even share moods that you have created so other Lampshade users can take advantage of them.
Visually, Lampshade.io is rough around the edges. It follows a lot of the basic Android design guidelines, but overall is is pretty clear there’s not a UI designer involved in the project. It’s highly functional, and probably the most powerful Hue app for Android right now, but it is in serious need of a facelift.
Also, if you are a real power user, Lampshade.io’s paid version is compatible with Tasker so you can really take your geekery to the next level.
Next page: More of the best Hue apps for Android…
More...
