Automatically Turn On Philips Hue Lights

If you want to turn your Philips Hue lights on and off on a schedule, here’s how to turn your Philips Hue lights on automatically, something the Philips Hue app can’t do.

Philips Hue lights are a great way to spice up your living spaces, they not only look great but also make it really easy to turn your lights on and off.

The Philips Hue app has the ability to turn on the lights after a certain time by setting a timer or creating an alarm to turn the lights on at a certain time. However, you can’t naturally have your Hue lights turn on and off at a certain time each day.

The good news is that there are other services that can control your Philips Hue lights and do just that. Let’s take a look at some of your options and set your Hue lights to turn on automatically whenever you want.

Automatically Turn On Philips Hue Lights

One service I like to use to automate things in my life is IFTTT, which stands for If This Then That. The service integrates a number of other services that allow you to automate certain tasks. For example, whenever I’m tagged in a Facebook photo, I can have IFTTT automatically save that photo in my Dropbox folder.

Philips Hue integrates with IFTTT and do a lot with both. One is to have your Hue lights turn on at a certain time and turn off at a certain time.

To do this, go to: IFTTT’s website and create an account or sign in to your existing account. After that, click on its icon at the top and then select it on the next page.

Next, click on it and then find the channel by searching or browsing the channel in the search box. After you find it, select it.

Next, you will need to choose a trigger; this means that you select here the times and days you want your Philips Hue lights to turn on. You have five options here, and they’re all self-explanatory. Choose the one that best suits what you are looking for.

For me, I want to turn on my office lights at 8:45 am every weekday, so I’ll click on it and then enter the hours on the next page and put checkmarks next to the weekdays. Then click.

After that, click on it and then select it from the list of services.

On the next screen, click on it. There are also a few other options that can turn your Hue lights up to a specific dimness you specify.

After that, you can specify which Hue light you want to turn on. You can choose all the lights you’re currently connected to, or choose a separate Hue bulb. Unfortunately, you cannot select more than one bulb and instead have to create the same IFTTT recipe for a second bulb. After selecting a light, click on it.

You can rename the recipe if you want. Otherwise, click and you’re ready to go!

If IFTTT isn’t for you, there are third-party Philips Hue apps you can get along with the functionality of the timing lights.

iConnectHue it’s probably your best bet, but it’s an app that costs $5. The good news is that it’s more comprehensive than Philips’ own app, so you’ll definitely get more out of it.

The Philips Hue app isn’t that great, and you’ll probably only notice it with a few minutes of fiddling, so it’s still a good idea to get a better third-party app.