With the release of Home Assistant Core 2021.6, the Philips Hue integration is set for a significant upgrade, promising to enhance your user experience dramatically. This update marks a shift from the old polling method to a more efficient pushing method, ensuring faster response times and a smoother overall experience. By leveraging local control and eliminating the need for cloud services, this integration not only enhances reliability but also offers the convenience of offline functionality. The best part? This improvement comes at no extra cost or effort to users, requiring only an update to the latest version of Home Assistant Core.
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Why the Philips Hue Integration with Home Assistant Needed Improvement
Home Assistant and Philips Hue have had a strong integration for some time now. One of the standout features of this integration is its ability to operate without relying on cloud services, meaning it can function offline. This is made possible through a local API that allows Home Assistant to communicate directly with the Philips Hue bridge, keeping track of the status of connected lights and sensors. However, while this local control is advantageous, the previous integration method had its limitations.
From Polling to Pushing
Previously, the integration relied on a method called polling. Polling involves Home Assistant periodically checking the Philips Hue hub to see if there have been any changes. This method could result in delays, making the lights slow to respond.
The new approach is pushing. In this method, the Philips Hue Hub sends updates directly to Home Assistant as soon as changes occur. This immediate communication means faster response times and a more efficient system overall. With Home Assistant Core 2021.6, the Philips Hue integration now supports local pushing, providing a significant improvement over the previous polling method.
An Upgrade with No Additional Costs
The release of Home Assistant Core 2021.6 brings this new local pushing feature to the Philips Hue integration. Users can expect faster response times and a smoother experience without needing to make any configuration changes. Simply update to the latest version of Home Assistant Core to take advantage of these improvements.
The History of Philips Hue and Its Relationship with Home Assistant
Philips Hue, a line of smart lighting products, was first introduced by Philips in October 2012. The system revolutionized the smart home lighting market by offering users unprecedented control over their home lighting through a mobile app. Philips Hue bulbs and fixtures could change colours, adjust brightness, and be scheduled or controlled remotely. The system's appeal was enhanced by its ease of installation and integration with various smart home platforms, making it a popular choice for both tech enthusiasts and everyday users.
Home Assistant, an open-source home automation platform launched in November 2013 by Paulus Schoutsen, aimed to provide a flexible and customizable solution for smart home enthusiasts. Its robust feature set and the active community of developers quickly garnered a strong following. The ability of Home Assistant to integrate with a wide range of smart home devices made it a natural partner for Philips Hue, which was becoming one of the most popular smart lighting solutions. The initial integration allowed users to control their Philips Hue lights through Home Assistant's interface, enabling more complex and personalized home automation setups.
Over the years, the relationship between Philips Hue and Home Assistant has continued to strengthen, with numerous enhancements improving the integration. Initially reliant on cloud services, which had limitations such as latency and the need for an active internet connection, the integration was later upgraded to utilize local APIs. This improvement enhanced speed and reliability while allowing offline functionality. The latest transition from polling to pushing in Home Assistant Core 2021.6 marks a significant advancement, ensuring the integration remains efficient and responsive. This collaboration exemplifies the potential of smart home technology to offer convenience, efficiency, and a high degree of personalization for users, promising a bright future for smart home enthusiasts.
Summary
The new update to Home Assistant Core 2021.6 enhances the Philips Hue integration by switching from polling to pushing, resulting in faster and more reliable performance. This upgrade requires no additional configuration from users, making it a seamless improvement.
Will push only be used for state changes to lights, or will sensor state changes be pushed as well?
The polling of sensor state is a main reason why people use Zigbee USB sticks instead of the Hue Bridge for sensor automations.
The way I read it on the HA website, it is available for everything. I’d still rather use Zigbee2MQTT though, as I can connect just about everything to it.
“response times will increase”??
I think that should be “improve”
You are absolutely correct, of course. Article updated! Thanks!
Article tells me NOTHING – what’s the point of this
Around 15% of Home Assistant users have the Philips Hue integration active, and they might not have been aware that this is happening. It’s called news. I try not to pad my articles out too much and keep things relevant. What exactly were you expecting?
How does one enable this? I use many hue lights and I still have issues with not all lights turning on or off and response times on hue switches take up to 5 seconds. It’s very frustrating.
This should be the new default. Have you set up the integration using the UI? Or perhaps you have too few mains-powered Zigbee devices to expand the mesh.
I have the same problem as James (with an Hue Bridge V2) : state of bulbs take up to 5 sec to raise into HA. I set up integration using UI.