Ask HN: Now That Phillips Is Enshittified, How Can I Run My Phillips Hue Lights?

20 points by LikelyABurner 2 years ago | 20 comments

For those of you that don’t know, the Phillips Hue app will soon be requiring you to sign up for an account to control Phillips Hue lights. Previously, they sold a Zigabee router specially for the use case of local control over WiFi, which is why I bought overpriced Hue lights over their cheaper competitor to begin with, but I guess that sweet data stream to make an AI based on light switching patterns was just too tempting.

The real kicker is they’re billing this as a “security requirement”, as though adding an additional cloud boundary to my threat model, all for a set of fucking light bulbs, could possibly increase my security.

I hate the future.

Now that my ranting is out of the way, how can I continue to control my lights without the proprietary app? I know they’re Zigabee and thus it’s an open standard so it should be possible, what are my options?

throwaway798214 2 years ago |

Don't take this the wrong way... but I control my lights with mechanical switches that are installed to walls of my home. They don't need logins to any cloud services, in fact they don't even have internet.

They just work.

catchnear4321 2 years ago | |

but how do you turn off the light once you are already in bed?

evanlivingston 2 years ago | | |

There are a handful of solutions to the problem of the lights being on while in bed, but wanting them to be off. One way is to turn off the lights before entering the bed. Another way is to get out of the bed and turn off the lights and then return to the bed.

Another popular solution is to place a lamp near the bed, such that the light controlled by the wall switch can be turned off before entering the bed and the lamp nearer the bed can be turned off while in bed.

bombcar 2 years ago |

You could look at https://www.home-assistant.io or if you're in the Apple ecosystem you could use the Home app which apparently can talk to Hue (for now).

gcatalfamo 2 years ago | |

Or homebridge.

Anyway as soon as you configure the phillips hue lights through homekit you never have to use their app ever.

bombcar 2 years ago | | |

HomeKit still controls some Best Buy switches that had their cloud shut down years ago, which is nice and a reason local control is the way to go.

acdha 2 years ago | |

This is why I only buy HomeKit devices. I have two switches whose manufacturers completely shut down, and this had no impact on my usage whatsoever. I’m not in love with the proprietary aspect but as a user this is exactly how it should be.

mindcrash 2 years ago |

Cute, especially because all their competitors have very competitive offerings these days and integrate very well into a vendor based solution like HomeKit or a open source solution such as HomeAssistant.

Case in point: LIFX (https://www.lifx.com/)

factorialboy 2 years ago |

I've been using Google Assistant to control my Hue light setup for more than a year now.

midnitewarrior 2 years ago | |

Nothing says "I want to improve my privacy and security" like inviting Google into your home.

pawelduda 2 years ago |

Switch to HomeAssistant, I haven't opened the hue app once in months since migration

VoodooJuJu 2 years ago |

>I hate the future.

You chose this future.

But you can choose a better one: use mechanical switches. No cloud, no complexity, no need to pay homage to some malevolent centralized authority just to turn on a lamp.

gabrielsroka 2 years ago | |

> centralized authority just to turn on a lamp

Do you generate your own electricity, too?

[I too use mechanical switches and am wary of most smart tech. And I buy my electricity from the power company.]

VoodooJuJu 2 years ago | | |

Conveniently left out "malevolent", I see. Yikes.

mikewarot 2 years ago | |

Not only do you get less complexity, the wizards of the EE world have created a capability based secure system called the "circuit breaker" that prevents all of the authority of the power grid flowing through your end user application and taking out the local system (i.e. burning down your house)

If only we had such security in the IT world. ;-)

thallosaurus 2 years ago |

get a zigbee stick and set an old PC/server up with home-assistant.io (i use conbee 2 stick)