Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Smart Home

Your Philips Hue lights can now sync to the beat of your Spotify music

By

Smart lights have long been able to sync up with music, but it has always been through your phone’s microphone. Philips Hue and Spotify have partnered to create what it calls the “first-ever deep lighting and music experience.” The process works by linking the both your Philips Hue and Spotify accounts, and that’s where the magic happens.

Philips Hue pulls the metadata from each song played on Spotify, regardless of what device you’re playing it on. It then uses an advanced lighting script that causes the lights to shift not only to the beat, but also based on the genre and mood of the song. This means you won’t run into the problem of a too-cheerful light show set to the dulcet tones of Helpless as you jam out to Hamilton for what you know is the 175th time.

Recommended Videos

The Philips Hue App is also getting a new tab called Sync that lets you adjust the brightness, intensity, and color palette of the lights to completely personalize the experience. The new program will begin rolling out today as an early access program for Philips Hue App 4 users, but will become a permanent part of the app after October.

Man dancing to Philips Hue lights and Spotify song.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

In addition to these new music-syncing capabilities, Hue is adding more smart bulbs to its collection with a new White Filament E14 candle bulb, as well as 75-watt and 100-watt equivalents of its existing smart bulbs. Early in 2022, Philips Hue is launching new Infuse ceiling lights for users who want white and colored indirect lighting on the ceiling.

Related

Another addition is the Philips Hue Play gradient light tube, which features the same gradient technology as the lightstrip, but is designed to sit above or below a TV to provide ambient, immersive lighting.

For gamers, Hue is updating its Hue Play HDMI Sync Box this fall to keep up with the higher refresh rates of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles. The HDMI Sync Box will receive 120Hz support with a resolution up to 1440p, as well as a rate of 60Hz up to a resolution of 4K.

The new gradient light tube has an expected availability of January 18 and will cost $180 or $200 based on size, while the new Filament candle bulb is available now for $30 for a single bulb or $50 for a two-pack.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Patrick Hearn
Patrick Hearn
Mobile Writer
Patrick Hearn writes about smart home technology like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, smart light bulbs, and more. If it's a…
Nanoleaf upgrades its music-syncing skills, launches new lighting products at CES 2024
The Nanoleaf Skylight lighting up a room various shades of purple.

Nanoleaf lit up the stage at CES 2024, pulling back the curtain on a variety of new lighting products arriving later this year. Along with the Essentials Matter Smart Multicolor Lightstrip, Outdoor String Lights, and Permanent Outdoor Lights, the company gave fans a closer look at the upcoming Skylight Modular Ceiling Light and the Orchestrator software -- with the latter bringing massive improvements to Nanoleaf's music syncing abilities.

Orchestrator is arguably the most exciting innovation of the bunch, as it connects directly to your computer's sound source to create a highly accurate lighting performance. This allows your Nanoleaf products to create a light show that's more robust than most other products on the market, which rely on sound alone.

Read more
How to create spooky Halloween effects with smart home lighting and sound
spooky halloween lighting haunted house

Smart home technology has expanded dramatically over the past few years, and there’s no shortage of cool tech available to help you with your holiday decorations. Halloween is a particularly great one for smart home gadgets to help with, as you’ll find a variety of products available that create unique lighting and sounds -- as well as a few ways to tweak them to create a spooky atmosphere.

With so many products up for grabs, it can be difficult to figure out where to start. If you need some help sifting through all the options, here’s a look at which smart home devices are best for Halloween -- and how they can make your home the talk of the neighborhood.
Light it up

Read more
Philips Hue adds support for cameras and sensors
The Philips Hue Secure Camera on a table.

After years of serving as a hub for smart lights, Philips Hue is officially adding support for security cameras and motion sensors. The news came during the annual IFA Convention, with Philips revealing several new classes of products that can interact with the existing Philips Hue lineup. This includes the Philips Hue Secure Wired Camera, Philips Hue Secure Contact Sensor, and Philips Hue Secure Floodlight.

The Hue Secure Camera boasts 1080p video capture, night vision, motion notifications, two-way audio, and the ability to sync with existing Hue lights to deter unwanted guests. It can also detect whether an alert is caused by a human, pet, or package without needing to access the cloud (resulting in enhanced privacy and security for your footage).

Read more