iConnectHue for Philips Hue 4+

Heads Up, Hue’s got a brand new friend.....

I got my first Hue bulbs about 8 months ago and installed them in my kitchen. The difference was unreal. I downloaded the Hue app to control them. Not too bad but missing some (what I considered to to be) simple functionality. After a bit of research I found iConnectHue. This app delivers all the functionality I wanted for my Hue system, and more.
As time went on I upgraded the dining room, bedrooms 1, 2 and 3, downstairs hall and upstairs hall. iConnectHue came into its own, switching all these via timers and motion sensors. The morning routine effortlessly switches main thoroughfares into a soft red, light enough to see but dark enough to not disturb.
The kitchen intelligently manages itself according to the time of day and the lighting required.
Bedtime is lush, I crack open the app and stick a sleep timer on and the lights softly fade out over a few minutes.
My wife and son have the lights slowly fade in at wake up time, giving a more natural, gentle wake up.
Remote management is easy and making the house look lives in when everyone is away is simple.
Magic scenes and animations mean you can vary the lighting patterns seasonally, Christmas is all warm red, green and gold, Easter is all yellows and bright.
Can’t rate this app highly enough, easily the best control system out there for all hinge Hue related. Thank you, iConnectHue!

Hands down best app I’ve ever had

The base app cost £5, which in itself enables a dimmer switch to control lots of groups easily (with the Philips Hue app can only control one group). I have one dimmer which now controls 4 separate groups of lights, one per button, cycling through scenes with each press and the group switches off when you hold the button (don’t think even hold option in Hue app?). Also have groups within groups which I don’t think the Hue app gives. Widget is also great, love the editor. Not played with additional content much but even if you spent £20 in total, that’s only the cost of one more dimmer switch, which the app has saved you by making your existing ones four times as good!

Well done developers!

Only suggestion would be to automatically put some scenes in when you create a group like the standard Concentrate, Dimmed, etc that the Philips app gives. Perhaps a few coloured ones to to spice it up a bit. Can always delete them if you don’t want them, but could save a bit of time creating them for each group (I created same ones for each group so felt like there should be a way of copying a compatible scene somehow - perhaps there is already?)

Developer Response ,

Will, thank you for your review and a happy new year to you!

Indeed these "scenes" are already there, but are handled differently. You can find them under "Colors" (Symbol with a big circle and a small circle in this big circle), there "Favorites". Scroll down there to the delivered colors, and there they are! You can also add your own colors there, so essentially this allows you to put your favorites in there and use them in every other group as well.
(If you want color scenes to be usable over multiple groups: This is what the Magic Scenes accomplish!)

Handling these scenes as colors saves precious bridge resources, hence the way iConnectHue handles these is a bit different.
Hope this helps you and enjoy iConnectHue!

Very worthwhile app !

This is an amended review, when it first was introduced there were aspects that I felt worthy of comment, good and less good. There is no doubt that this app is hugely capable with great functionality. My first thoughts were that the app was expensive, but I see now that the developer has worked super hard to continually develop this app and offer up to date functionality. This should not go without reward. It still irks that once you settle on this app to control your lighting you may still come across further expense with required in app purchases. I find this annoying and sometimes think I would rather pay more in the first place and be done with it. That said I still think this is the best app for controlling Hue lights...period! The interface is intuitive but beyond that has hidden power so reading the tips and help will be useful. A well designed and professional app which will do the job for you really well. The developer will answer questions directly, as he says, rather than bad press here just ask the question directly to him. Just to help anybody who has read this far…it is also brilliant !!

Developer Response ,

Dear Snappit,

thank you very much for taking your time to write us such an elaborate review!

We are happy to hear that the iConnectHue's functionality and interface could persuade you :)

Do you already know our memberships? They include ALL in-app purchases, now and in the future, and might suit you if you don't like to have many separate purchases.
https://iconnecthue.com/f-a-q/#membership

We wish you a lot of fun with iConnectHue!