Philips Lighting has a couple of exciting announcements today, the first being that it has “enhanced” the Amazon Alexa skill for its Philips Hue light bulb for users located in North America. As well, the company says it is expanding that skill into the United Kingdom and Germany, allowing Hue owners in both of those countries to use Alexa for controlling their lights, including those new aforementioned enhanced functions. As of today, owners can now use Alexa to have Hue turn on light scenes like “wake-up” or “party.”
Philips Hue owners located in the United States have already had some limited Alexa functions available, such as using Amazon’s personal assistant to turn the lights on or off or, alternatively, to dim them. By “enhancing” the integration, Alexa can now also be used to set light scenes and recipes by voice command…including ones that involve colors.
Users can, for example, tell Alexa to “turn on scene wake-up” in a specific room and it’ll do so, no hassles necessary, assuming that scene is setup. In that case, a white light will gradually grow stronger to simulate the sunrise, waking someone up more gently than an alarm clock. If you need something for a weekend party, the same can be done with “Alexa, turn on scene party in the living room.”
This all goes for Philips Hue owners in Germany and the UK, as well, as the enhanced functionality has launched there with the new skill support. Speaking about it, Philips Lighting’s Sridhar Kumaraswamy said, “Building on the strong relationship we have with Amazon, we’re very pleased to launch our Alexa skill in UK and Germany.”
Check out more Philips Hue news in the timeline below!
