How to Setup Geofencing with Philips Hue

You can do some great things with smart lighting, but what about turning your lights on and off when you leave home, with geofencing that is built into the Hue app you can do just that.

What is ‘geofencing’?

Geofencing is about tracking your position in relation to another smart device, using Wi-Fi, cellular data, or GPS to know where you are through your smart phone, actions can be triggered by another smart device depending on your location. The perfect example for this is having your lights turn on at home when you arrive home, and turn off when you leave home. 

How can geofencing work with smart lights?

Smart lighting is a great smart device that works well with geofencing, Philips Hue lighting allows you to use geofencing and can all be set up through the app. 

Having your lights turn on at home or outside your home when you arrive is a great action, you get home and it is pitch black but your outdoor lights come on for you and light up your driveway, porch and your hall light comes on. 

Leave for work in the morning and forgot to turn a light off, using geofencing you can set it so all your lights turn off if they are not already off. Great for saving energy by energising all your lights are off, even if you forget to turn one off. 

How to set up Philips Hue lights with geofencing

To set up geofencing with Philips hue you must have a Hue bridge,  the latest version of the Hue app and a Philips Hue account set up, Geofencing does not work with Bluetooth Bulbs without a Hue bridge. 

• Open the Hue app
• Go to the Automations tab in the Hue app.
• Select the plus icon (+) to add a new automation.
• Select Coming Home or Leaving Home.

Follow the on-screen instructions to allow trigger locations based automations and to set up. 

Coming home will trigger an action when you return to this location, and leaving home will trigger an action when you depart and go away from this set location.

Using Multi-user geofencing support

A recent feature add to the Hue app is multi-user geofencing, which lets you add multiple location-enabled devices to “coming home” and “leaving home” automations.

This means that the location is not based of just a single phone, for example you leave home in the morning to go to work, however you partner is still at home, by tracking their location and having the app set up on their phone too, the lights won’t turn off just because you leave, they will only turn off if you have both left the home location. 

Geofencing is a great feature and quick and easy to set up while giving a very useful benefit to the user, great for saving energy to turn your lights off, great for safety and practicality by having your lights on in the evening if needed when you come home. 

Mike Ford

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