Philips Hue without the Bridge?

[ras47]

I have a bunch of Nest products and love 'em all. Thermostats (2), smoke/co2 detectors (7), and a Nest Hello doorbell. I want to add some Philips Hue dimmable/color-changing lights now, both inside in recessed high hats and on our front porch. It looks like they work with Google Home straight out of the box but I'm not sure. Everything I read is several years old.

So can I control the color and brightness of Philips Hue lights just from my Pixel 5?

 

[ras47]

The answer is a resounding YES.

If the Philips Hue bulbs have Bluetooth they will be marked at the base with a Bluetooth logo. Download the Philips Hue Bluetooth app to set up.

If they are WiFi-enabled they should say WiZ on the box. Download the WiZ app to set up. This is what I did for my new porch lights. Our old covered porch and front entrance were made from stained cedar and were rotting away. They were also made with some cheap-*** fake wood on the steps that had warped and was pulling away. I had patched the stairs several times but the writing on the wall was clear. The whole setup needed replacing. We had a crew come in and do the whole job with Trex engineered lumber products that will last forever. New lighting fixtures called for a new lighting scheme and it seemed like the perfect time to link the new lights to our Google Home system that already included all our Nest kit.

To set up the bulbs with Google Home you need to first set them up in WiZ. You need to set up a new Home in WiZ first. Doesn't matter what you call it because you won't be using it after setup. I just went with the default "My Home". The Philips Hue LED bulbs were $12 a piece at Home Depot. Once you set up the WiZ app on your WiFi network you can configure your bulbs' brightness and color. Lots of schemes and presets available. Very cool. Then you simply link your WiZ account with Google Home and the Lights icon appears on your Google Home main screen. And you're ready!