Pairing Philips Hue with Alexa

Pairing Amazon Alexa with Philips Hue delivers a powerful smart home setup that allows you to control your smart lights via voice commands, and the great news is, making this happen is simple!

Below, we’ll walk you through setting up your Hue lights with Alexa and offer some tips on cool things you can do with the added functionality.

How To Connect Philips Hue Bluetooth Bulbs To Alexa

If you have any of the latest Philips Hue bulbs, you’ll have the option of connecting to Bluetooth without a hub. The Good news is that you can do so and still use Alexa.

In fact, you can set up Hue bulbs using voice control on a recent Echo device (Amazon Echo Dot third-gen, Echo Plus first or second-gen, or the latest Echo Show). Screw in the bulb and say, “Alexa, discover devices”. You’ll then go through setup in the Alexa app.

Even better, if you purchase your bulbs on Amazon using the same account associated with Alexa, it will do the entire process for you. It’s all part of Amazon’s ‘Frustration Free’ initiative.

Remember though, if you use your Hues only over Bluetooth, you won’t be able to control them outside your house and you can only connect up to 10 bulbs.

How To Connect Hue With Bridge To Alexa

If you’ve got a Hue Bridge setup, the process is a little different. You first need to get your Alexa and Philips Hue accounts talking to one another. So make sure you have the app downloaded for both, and that you have a Hue account set up and ready to go. You can simply discover your Hue lights in Alexa and get basic functionality, but enabling the Hue skill will give you a much wider spectrum of control.

Here’s how to get it working:

1. Open the Alexa app.

2. Open the menu and go to Skills & Games.

3. Search for the Philips Hue skill.

4. Enable it.

5. You’ll be kicked to the Hue login page. Enter your details and grant permission.

Now Add Your Hue Lights

You should be nudged to discover devices as soon as you connect your Hue account to Alexa. Otherwise, you can simply say, “Alexa, discover devices” to an Alexa speaker in your home.

The third way goes like this:

Enabling the Hue skill will give you a much wider spectrum of control.

1. Open the Alexa app.

2. Go to the Devices tab.

3. Tap the + icon at the top right of the screen and then tap Add Device.

4. You can tap the Hue logo, which you should see under ‘Popular Brands’.

5. Tap Discover Devices.

Alexa Commands For Philips Hue

Once you’re up and running, you can use Alexa to turn on/ off your Hue lights, dim them, change the colour and set scenes. Of course, your list of possible commands will depend on which bulbs you have (you can’t change the colour of white bulbs).

Here are some examples to get you started:

• “Alexa, turn on/off [light name]”

• “Alexa, dim the lights”

• “Alexa, dim the lights by 40%”

• “Alexa, make my lights warmer”

• “Alexa, turn my lights green”

• “Alexa, set [light name] to 60%”

• “Alexa, turn on [scene] in [room]”

• “Alexa, turn on Movie Time in [room]”