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14 Best Apps for Philips Hue Lights for Android & iPhone for 2023

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Updated for 2023 – The great things about the Philips Hue smart system are the number of apps you can use that help maximise the use of your lights.

There are lots of Hue apps for Apple iOS and Android, from simple apps for creating scenes, flashing your lights to the beat and sound of music, as well as apps such as hue Dynamic and iConnectHue that will help unlock features and customise your hue buttons, scenes and animations.

Best Apps for Philips Hue Lights for 2023

So what are the best Philips hue apps to download? We have rounded up our top Philips hue lighting apps for iPhone and Android, many are free, some are paid or have paid features you can buy to unlock.

huedynamic Icon
hueDynamic
$4.99 // Click to Download

hueDynamic for Hue Pro is a powerful app that can be downloaded for iOS and Android, it has a lot of features, from create scenes, dynamic lighting settings to go with your music, a nice dashboard showing temperatures from your Hue motion sensors.

You can also edit your switches and dimmer unlocking powerful features, such as cycle through ambiences, enable & disable color loop, cycle through brightness levels and much more!

Camera support means you can point your device at your TV and sync your lights to your viewing for a truly immersive experience! Movie night has never been so good. Enjoy an advanced sampling mode – predominant multicolored with adjustable smoothing. Speed and brightness control is also supported.

Finally, this is a powerful app and what I love is that you pay the one off fee of $4.99 and the app and all the features are yours, no premium features to buy and unlock, its all there.

iConnectHue Icon
iConnectHue
$4.99 // Click to Download

Our number one app is iConnectHue! This is one of the more costly apps that people are going to find today, especially if they are interested in getting all of the features that come with the iConnectHue. However, as the name suggests, this is very much the sort of app that is going to allow people to interface with their lights more effectively than the majority of others available today.

People can control individual lights, groups of lights, and other arrangements of lights in a way that would be difficult otherwise.

Read our full user iConnectHue app Review here.

OnSwitch Icon
OnSwitch
FREE // Click to Download

This is an app that will allow people to get some of the coolest lighting effects that anyone could ever expect. These are subtle lighting effects that will manage to evoke the feeling of a place. Some of them will be reminiscent of a desert and some of them will be reminiscent of seasons like autumn or winter. One way or another, people will be able to change the emotional character of their rooms effectively.

This app works with both Hue and Lifx bulbs allowing you to combine and operate them both. The app comes with built in ready to use scenes and settings, some are free and some are premium.

If you want to create a certain mood, but don’t want to use the flamboyant lights created by one of the music app, the OnSwitch may be what you are looking for. From the desert colors of its Albuquerque program, to the warm orange and yellows of its Autumn Leaves setting, the OnSwitch app transports you to a different place. Included is a setting for Christmas lights, and other holiday theme colors are on the way. Download for iOS or Android.

ambee Icon
Ambee 2.0
From $2.99 // Click to Download

Stunning light visuals and scenes to suit every mood, browse and select beautiful light scenes, there are 50 dynamic light animations from 6 different moods, these are Relaxing, Sleeping, Romantic, Party, Working, Winter.

Three subscription options to choose from, weekly, monthly and yearly. 

Huemote Icon
Huemote
FREE // Click to Download

The Huemote is one of the easiest apps that people can use in order to really manage their Phillips Hue lights. Huemote is simply a remote that is quick and fast to use allowing you to quickly turn lights on and off, adjust the brightness quickly and colour.

It is a simple app built for your iPhone and iPad, and is simple and innovative to use, there is also an app for your iWatch too, so you don’t even need to get your phone out your pocket. This app is a great way to control your Philips Hue Lights and makes it very easy to turn on and off, as well as adjusting the brightness quickly and easily.

Both apps are easy to use and work together well, if you want an app that simple allow you to control your lights quickly and easily then this is the app you need.

Lightbow Icon
Lightbow
$4.99 // Click to Download

Few smart lamp apps could ever be as efficient as the Lightbow app. This is an app that is capable of regulatingLIFX, WeMo, and Hue bulbs, making it very versatile and efficient. People can control groups of bulbs or individual bulbs, which will give people that much more of an influence over the lighting in their environment.

If controlling the lightning in a single room isn’t enough, the lightbow app provides user with a method for controlling an entire house, using a system of interelated smart lights. Easily the most comprehensive app for the Philips Hue Lights, it is also the most expensive. Still, the price isn’t bad – just $4.99

Hue Disco Icon
Hue Disco
£3.99 // Click to Download

There’s no reason you shouldn’t use Hue Disco app when you own an android or iOS device, it is certainly the best Hue Disco app!. This app is unique in that it listens to outside noise coming from the microphone, thus you can play music from just about any device while your smartphone will control the lights.

The Hue Disco app is one of the many apps that is capable of getting the lights and the music in sync, which is going to allow people to have an even more energetic party. This app is simular to Ambify, but it is a little more convenient. If you don’t have access to the iTunes library, an external microphone will play music from any source. Just set it up next to your stereo speakers and soon your Philips Hue Lights will fill your room with a mirage of dancing lights.

However, people can adjust the sensors and the settings more easily with the Hue Disco party app than they can with other apps, which should allow people to prevent their guests from getting sensory overload more effectively.

 

Best Hue Apps Android

Scintillator Icon
Scintillator
£2.99 // Click to Download

If you have a specific light theme in mind for Philips Hue Lights, but don’t want to be restrained by preset colors, the Scintillator app gives you complete control over the colors your system projects. Of course, this is more complicated than the Huey app, and will take time to set up, but if your creative juices are flowing, give it a try.

People will cycle their lights all the time in order to get all sorts of cool lighting effects during a party. However, those cycles are sometimes beyond their control in a way that can be fixed with the right app. The Scintillator is just the sort of app that can allow people to get control over those cycles, which can enable people to truly get the lighting effects that they want.

Hue Hello
Hue Hello
FREE // Click to Download

It’s usually a great idea to start with a free offering when venturing out for a new app. Hue Hello is one of the highest ranked free Philip Hue apps available. It has 8 basic presets, meaning it does all the work for the user, has different adjustments for each room that a user has smartlights installed, and gives you a way to create groups of lights.

all 4 hue
All4Hue
FREE // Click to Download

This Philips Hue app is free but does have adverts and a few limitations unless your pay for it, but is quite a bit more complex than Hue Hello. It is very highly rated, and is one of the most used Philips Hue apps.

Of its many advantages, a few are that it has support for the temperature sensor, movement sensor, and this Philip Hue app allows the user to set a lot of rules, conditions and actions to their own liking.

Hue Body & Soul & Mindfulness
Hue Body & Soul & Mindfulness
$3.99 // Click to Download

This offering for Philips Hue app users has one intention: to help the user relax and de-stress. It certainly does that with 12 different preset offerings. This user-friendly app does all the work; the choices include ‘relaxing spa’ and ‘Japanese gardens’. It’s the ultimate meditation app, with a refreshing soundscape and meditative lighting to go with it. One downside is that it is a newer Philips Hue app, so it only works on newer androids that were created after July 2016.

Hue Switcher
Hue Switcher
FREE // Click to Download

Once a user is more comforter with their Hue Lighting system, this is an absolute must to have in Philips Hue apps. This helps the user to manage and control all groups, sets trigger events like alarms or motion sensors, and can help the user create rooms, scenes and transitions. This app is known for its ready-to-custom lava lamp scenes.

Hue Thunder
Hue Thunder
$3.99 // Click to Download

This Philip Hue app falls into the relaxation category for many users. If a user happens to be afraid of thunder, no worry, this app is fairly expansive on the definition of the word ‘thunder’. Settings include light drizzle and heavy rain pours down. If someone is looking for more excitement, tornado alley and hurricane mayhem are some other options. An inexpensive way for user to get their daily zen, fall asleep, or even imagine themselves inside of.

Thunderstorm for Hue
Thunderstorm for Hue
$3.99 // Click to Download

This app is being included along with the other Philips Hue app to show Philips’ versatility. Both this app and Hue Thunder have great ratings, a comparable amount of users, and each has different effects to make it its own app.

Ambify is certainly one of the best music apps available for the Philips Hue lighting system. It will adjust your lighting to the music being played, all in sync, lights will flash, or fade up and down, change colour all based on the music. The great thing about this app that makes it different and better is that it is all in sync, there is no delay between the lights and music, it is all in sync, lights will flash with the bass, no delay but all in time.

You can also different types of effects, allowing you to program individual bulbs to respond to the bass, mids, and highs in your tunes.

As well as for you phone, you can get an app for your Mac and play tunes from Spotify, iTunes etc through to your speakers or through Airplay. and your lights will work in sync, bring your music to life through light. Find out more here: http://getambify.com/mac.html

What apps do you use and recommend? Have we missed any off our list? Let us know below.

Our Favourites

My personal favourite is iConnectHue, it is very powerful, up-to-date and always being improved. If you want to create more complex settings, or buttons, scenes and animations then this app is certainly worth checking out.

For music then HueDisco is great, some great settings and easy to use. There are lots of apps for Philips Hue but these are our top 10 and some great choice that are worth downloading.

What apps are you using? What are your favourites?


Founder & Editor

Mike is the founder of Hue Home Lighting, a huge Hue fan with far too many lights, covering home and garden. A smart home gadget addict and also enjoys the odd bit of DIY

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30 Comments

  1. Darrell

    Hi there,

    I develop the hueDynamic for Hue application for PC, Windows Mobile and Xbox One.

    I believe is it worthy of inclusion on your list of great Hue apps, and was even nominated by Microsoft themselves for the “app creator of the year award” at Build 2017.

    The app incorporates many features which you would normally need multiple other applications for, not limited to:

    – Dynamic animated “experiences” with stereo sound
    – Advanced and lowest latency disco mode that works with any application, including Spotify and YouTube . No microphone required.
    – Advanced Hue Tap and Dimmer programming, opening up your Hue devices to be much more useful than even Hue Labs can provide
    – Camera immersive light sync – to sync your lights to movies, games and TV shows
    – Plex server integration to dim your lights when you watch something automatically.
    – Sunlight simulator
    – Motion sensor temperature dashboard
    – Cortana support to issue voice commands

    and much more.

    We have 1000’s of happy customers and great testimonials.

    I’d greatly appreciate you looking at the app and considering its inclusion on your list. Please contact me and I’ll provide a free promotional code for your reviewers. There is also a free trial!

    Thanks for your time. More information on the Microsoft store page and the hueDynamic website.

    Reply
      • Darrell

        Awesome thanks for the support! There are so many new additions but bloggers seem to neglect that things and apps have moved forward with Hue.

        Reply
    • damien

      Reading your list of features, I was more intrigued by your app than any on the ‘top ten’ list (many which I already have.) I immediately went to the app store & did a search for hue Dynamic, ready to download it, I should have read your comment closer, because as you know this in not actually on the App Store, or available to iOS or MacOS users. Hopefully that gets changed in the future, I will be downloading it when possible. I would guess that is the #1 reason you were not included on their list.

      Reply
    • John

      Hi Darrell,

      I was looking for a hue app to program my Hue tap switching saw your app mentioned in an article but it was for Windows. I decided to see if the App Store had it and thankfully, they did! I now love my Tap switch because of the toggle features you brought to it. I can use one switch to toggle brightness levels of a current scene, another to toggle as many scenes as I want. I could have each switch work for a different room, but that leaves less I can do for any one room, so now I’m going to need a Tap for each room, 😉 Philips will thank you for that and so will I for making an excellent app. My only complaint is that it only works in portrait mode on an iPad. I still gave it a 5 star review on the App Store.

      To HueHomeLighting.com, this app should be one of the top ten.

      Reply
      • Darrell

        Hey John,

        Awesome news – glad its worked out for you, Thanks for the review on the App Store as well. We need to get the app out there!

        All the best

        Reply
    • RealBuRn Real

      I must agree with the people of Hue Dynamic. Although their app is very user friendly, it allows to bring Philips Hue to its full power.
      It is kind of a pity that web sites like these only focus on apps for mobile phones or for apple devices, while a bigger and bigger group of people is currently using windows powered tablets, rendering above mentioned apps useless. Controlling your lights using your phone is one thing, but personally I prefer controlling my home using a windows tablet which is much more secure than a phone. Us

      Reply
  2. Abhishek Bansal

    I would like to mention the only Philips Hue focused learning app in the market as of now. Hue for Kids (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rrapps.hueforkids) is a learning app that makes learning fun for young kids.

    This app makes learning futuristic and immersive by making Philips Hue lights react to actions of a child as he get to know about different colours, fruits, flowers and vegetables.

    Hue for Kids iOS version is officially a featured app by Philips (http://www.developers.meethue.com/otherapps/otherAppsIOS.html).

    Reply
  3. Rennan Duarte

    Hi, is there any app for Android users to control Philips Hue TAP and make each button to have 2 actions, like first press ON, then 2 press on the same button OFF ???? I have 4 set of lights to control with HUE TAP, but I dont want to use 2 TAP’s, 1 to turn on and the other to turn off, or even but 2 set in one tap, and the other e set of lights in another tap, I don’t like the feel to use different button to turn on and off.

    Thanks in advance.
    Rennan

    Reply
  4. Bill

    While it’s great that everyone develops apps for Andriod and iOS devices, a big gap is the lack of applications for MacOS / Windows.

    What I would love to do – is automatically schedule specific animations to kick off at a defined time, from my home server – a Mac Mini.

    I’ve replaced all my exterior lightbulbs with Hue bulbs. I would love to have the “Candle” effect kick off every night. Or a configured Christmas, Halloween, light show for the holidays, etc..

    Reply
  5. Tomas from Ambee

    I would also like to add our concept that we invented for Philips Hue lights back in 2013 – Dynamic Animations. We started off as Goldee and rebranded into Ambee in 2015.

    You’ll find around 50 light animations (such as Milky Way, Evening on the Beach, Under the Red Sea, Northen Lights,…). You’ll definitely find animation for any mood.

    Reply
  6. Bilal

    Hey there,

    the developer of Lumia Twitch for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
    Lumia Twitch connects your Phillips Hue light bulb to Twitch and your viewers.
    Your viewers can just type !blue and watch as the hue changes. There is a really easy to use UI to go through a plethora of options.

    A lot different from the other apps on the list, check it out and let me know what you all think.

    Reply
  7. Marius M

    I develope qtHue, a free (opensource) desktop application that work on all platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac, RaspberryPi, etc). It receive weekly updates with new futures.

    Reply
  8. Renan Protector

    I’m the developer behind Lights for Philips Hue app (http://apple.co/2lNttMU). The app is currently available for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. It has more than 40 professionally designed light scenes for every mood you may want at your home or office.

    Feel free to contact me if you have any question or feedbacks 🙂

    Reply
  9. Alisha Ross

    For those who haven’t tried it, I can’t praise Sunrise calendar highly enough. Apart from it’s ease of use, it synchronises seamlessly with my phone, PC and Mac. Beats all others hands down!

    Reply
  10. Alisha Ross

    I simply wanted to say thanks again. I’m not certain the things I would’ve carried out in the absence of these points provided by you regarding such field. It was before a real daunting difficulty in my view, nevertheless considering the very skilled style you treated the issue took me to jump with fulfillment. Extremely grateful for the advice and then expect you comprehend what a great job that you’re putting in training the rest all through your site. Most likely you’ve never met all of us.

    Reply
  11. ScottDodsonDev

    Thank you for including Thunderstorm for Hue! I hope you’ll also consider Soundstorm for Hue and Firestorm for Hue:

    Soundstorm for Hue—music visualizer and party effects (https://scottdodson.dev/hue/soundstorm/)
    – Music Visualizer — Lights change colors to the music
    – Strobe — Lights change colors in a flash randomly
    – Color Loop — Lights change colors simultaneously
    – Color Flow — Lights change colors sequentially
    – Playlist — Each mode plays for a random duration

    Firestorm for Hue—fire effects (https://scottdodson.dev/hue/firestorm/)
    – Candlelight — Flickering flame from a candle in the wind
    – Lava — Molten rock rises and oozes out of the volcano
    – Fireplace — Glowing fire with wood crackling as it burns
    – Campfire — Flames dance quickly in the campsite fire
    – Fireworks — Bursts of color with explosions and crackles

    Reply

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