Every Feature in HueCommand
The most comprehensive Philips Hue control app for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro. Here's everything it can do.
New in 1.2
- Instant launch, instant controls — opens straight to your rooms, and rooms and scenes respond the moment you tap.
- Whole-house On/Off — All On and All Off switch every light at once.
- Goodnight — fade any room gently to off over 1 to 60 minutes. It runs on your Bridge, so it keeps fading after you close the app. How Goodnight works.
- Control Center, Lock Screen & Action button — add a room toggle to any of them (iOS 18 or later).
- Always in sync — reconnects automatically after Wi-Fi changes or a Bridge restart, and finds your Bridge again if its IP address changes. Sensors, batteries, and new lights update live.
- Try it without a bridge — demo mode lets you explore the whole app before you set up Hue.
- Every screen — a real windowed Mac app, the first public Apple TV release, Apple Vision Pro, and iPhone Duo support.
Complete Light Control
HueCommand gives you full control over every Philips Hue light in your home. Unlike the official Hue app, which limits you to preset colors and basic sliders, HueCommand exposes the full capability of your Hue Bridge hardware.
Color Wheel & Precision Picker
A full CIE 1931 color space wheel lets you pick any color your Hue lights can produce. Drag to select, pinch to zoom, and see changes reflected on your lights in real time. This isn't a simplified color grid — it's the actual color space your lights operate in.
Brightness & Color Temperature
Smooth sliders for brightness (0–100%) and color temperature (warm 2000K to cool 6500K). Changes are sent to your Hue Bridge instantly with no perceptible delay. Every adjustment is reflected live on your lights.
Multi-Point Gradients
For Hue lights that support gradients (like the Gradient Lightstrip and Play Gradient Light Bar), HueCommand lets you set multiple color points along the strip. Create flowing color transitions that aren't possible in most Hue apps.
Color Harmony Overlays
When picking colors, HueCommand shows complementary, analogous, and triadic harmonies — helping you create rooms that look professionally designed without a design degree.
Room Dashboard
The main screen shows every room in your home at a glance. Each room card displays which lights are on, their current colors, and lets you toggle the entire room with a single tap.
Tap into any room to see individual lights, adjust brightness, change colors, or apply scenes. The dashboard is designed for speed — the most common actions (toggle a room, check status) take zero navigation.
A "Turn Off All Lights" button at the top lets you shut down everything in your home with one tap — perfect for bedtime or leaving the house.
Scenes & Scene Creation
Scenes save a specific configuration of lights — colors, brightness, and effects — so you can recall them instantly. HueCommand supports both static scenes (fixed colors) and dynamic scenes (animated color transitions).
Custom Scene Builder
Build scenes from scratch. Pick which lights to include, set individual colors and brightness for each light, and save. Scenes are stored on your Hue Bridge, so they work even when HueCommand isn't running.
AI Scene Creator PRO
Describe a mood in plain English — "warm sunset for a dinner party" or "cool blue focus lighting" — and HueCommand generates a scene using on-device AI. No data is sent to the cloud. This uses Apple's Foundation Models, available on iPhone 15 Pro and later with iOS 26+.
Scene Templates
Don't want to start from scratch? Browse a gallery of pre-built scene templates organized by mood and occasion. One tap to preview, another to save.
Dynamic Scenes
Dynamic scenes cycle through colors over time, creating ambient animations. Set the speed, color palette, and which lights participate. Great for parties, relaxation, or background ambiance.
Effects & Music Sync
Light Effects
HueCommand includes a library of animated lighting effects — candle flicker, fireplace glow, ocean waves, northern lights, thunderstorm, and more. Effects are orchestrated by the app's animation engine and sent to your lights in real time.
Music-Reactive Lighting
Turn on music sync and HueCommand listens through your iPhone's microphone to detect beats in real time. Your lights pulse, flash, and change color to the rhythm of whatever's playing. Adjust sensitivity to match your preference — from subtle ambiance to full party mode.
The microphone audio is processed entirely on-device and is never recorded, stored, or transmitted. It's used only for real-time beat detection. Music sync needs a microphone, so it isn't available on Apple TV.
Smart Automations PRO
Create rules that control your lights automatically based on time, schedule, or other triggers.
Time-Based Schedules
Set lights to turn on at sunset, dim at 10pm, and turn off at midnight. Automations run on your Hue Bridge, so they execute even when your phone is off or away from home.
Scene Templates
Pre-built scene templates organized by mood and category — warm, cool, energizing, relaxing, and more. Browse the gallery, preview with one tap, customize to your liking, and save.
Day Planner
A visual timeline for scheduling your entire day's lighting. Add time slots, assign scenes to each slot, and set fade durations for smooth transitions. See your whole lighting schedule at a glance and adjust with drag-and-drop simplicity.
Circadian Rhythm Lighting
HueCommand can automatically adjust your lights' color temperature throughout the day to match natural sunlight. Cool, energizing blue-white in the morning transitions to warm amber in the evening — helping your body maintain a healthy sleep-wake cycle.
The circadian engine uses your location to calculate accurate sunrise and sunset times, then creates smooth transitions between them. You can enable it per-room, so your office stays cool and focused while your bedroom shifts warm in the evening.
This feature is completely free and doesn't require a Pro subscription.
Remote Access PRO
Control your Philips Hue lights from anywhere in the world. HueCommand connects to the official Philips Hue cloud API using OAuth 2.0 with PKCE — the same secure authentication standard used by banks and enterprise software.
Once connected, you can toggle lights, activate scenes, and check status from cellular data, a different Wi-Fi network, or anywhere with internet access. Your Hue Bridge credentials are handled entirely by Philips Hue and are never stored by HueCommand.
Apple Ecosystem Integration
Apple Watch Companion App
A full Hue control app on your wrist. Toggle lights, activate scenes, and check room status from your Apple Watch. The watch app syncs automatically with your iPhone — no separate setup needed. Requires watchOS 10.0 or later.
Home Screen Widgets PRO
Add quick-toggle widgets to your iPhone home screen. Turn lights on and off without even opening the app. Widgets update automatically to reflect current light status.
Control Center, Lock Screen & Action Button
On iOS 18 or later, add a room toggle to Control Center, the Lock Screen, or the Action button for one-press control.
Siri Shortcuts
HueCommand registers App Intents that work with Siri and the Shortcuts app. Say "Hey Siri, activate Movie Night" to trigger a scene, or build complex automations in the Shortcuts app that include light control as one step in a larger workflow.
Available shortcuts: activate scene, toggle light, and set brightness.
Device & Accessory Management
HueCommand shows detailed information for every device connected to your Hue Bridge — not just lights.
- Lights: Power state, color, brightness, firmware version, model name
- Motion sensors: Current detection state, battery level, light level readings
- Temperature sensors: Current temperature, battery status
- Contact sensors: Open/closed state, tamper detection
- Switches & dimmers: Button programming, battery level
- Zigbee signal strength: See how well each device communicates with your bridge
Rename devices, assign them to rooms, and identify lights (flash them) directly from the device detail screen.
Switch Programming PRO
Customize what your Hue switches and dimmers do when you press each button. Map buttons to specific scenes, toggle behaviors, or brightness presets. This goes beyond what the official Hue app offers for switch customization.
Power User Features
Multi-Bridge Support PRO
Connect two or more Philips Hue Bridges for large homes, separate buildings, or complex setups. HueCommand manages each bridge independently and lets you switch between them seamlessly. The free tier supports one bridge.
Bridge Backup & Restore PRO
Export your entire Hue Bridge configuration — rooms, scenes, automations, device assignments — as a backup file. If you ever need to reset your bridge or replace it, restore everything with one tap instead of rebuilding from scratch.
Energy Dashboard PRO
Track energy consumption across all your Hue lights. See per-device wattage estimates, historical usage trends, and identify which lights are using the most power. Useful for optimizing your setup and understanding your electricity costs.
Usage Insights PRO
Analytics about how you use your lights — which rooms are most active, which scenes get activated most often, and suggestions for optimizing your setup.
Geofencing PRO
HueCommand uses Apple's CLMonitor API to detect when you arrive at or leave home, then automatically activates the scenes you choose. Lights turn on as you pull into the driveway and shut off when everyone has left — no manual action required.
How It Works
You define a geofence radius around your home and assign scenes to arrive and leave events. When your iPhone crosses the boundary, HueCommand triggers the corresponding scene on your Hue Bridge. The system uses Apple's built-in location monitoring, which is battery-efficient and works even when the app is not in the foreground.
Requirements
Geofencing requires "Always" location permission so iOS can monitor your position in the background. Location data is processed entirely on-device and is never transmitted to any server. This is a Pro feature.
Entertainment API Streaming
HueCommand connects directly to your Hue Bridge's Entertainment API over DTLS (encrypted UDP), sending color and brightness commands at up to 25 updates per second. This is dramatically faster than the standard REST API and enables smooth, real-time light animations that feel truly responsive.
Music Visualization
With Entertainment Streaming enabled, music-reactive lighting reaches a new level of fidelity. Beat detection drives your lights at 25Hz — fast enough to match every kick drum and hi-hat. The result replaces a $300+ Hue Sync Box for music sync use cases, using only your iPhone's microphone.
Entertainment Areas
Entertainment Streaming requires an entertainment area configured on your Hue Bridge (you can set this up in the official Hue app). Once configured, HueCommand detects available entertainment areas and lets you stream to them directly.
Native Mac App (macOS)
HueCommand runs as a native macOS application on any Mac with Apple silicon or Intel running macOS 14 Sonoma or later. This is a true Mac app — not an iOS app running through Catalyst or compatibility mode.
Resizable Windows
HueCommand is a real windowed Mac app with its own Dock icon. Resize the window to fit your desktop layout and the interface adapts with responsive layouts.
Native Menus, Right-Click & Keyboard Shortcuts
Native Mac menus and keyboard shortcuts for common actions: ⌘1–⌘5 switch tabs, ⌘R refreshes, and Esc closes any panel. Right-click any room for quick actions. The app follows Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for Mac, with proper window management, toolbar buttons, and contextual menus.
All Features Included
Every feature from the iOS app is available on Mac — color wheel, scenes, automations, music sync, remote access, energy dashboard, bridge backup, and more. Your Hue Bridge connects over your local network just like on iPhone.
Apple TV App (tvOS)
HueCommand is available as a native tvOS app for Apple TV, giving you big-screen control of your Philips Hue lights. Navigate entirely with the Siri Remote — no iPhone required.
Siri Remote Navigation
The tvOS interface is designed for the Siri Remote's touch surface and click pad. Swipe to browse rooms and click to toggle lights. Focus-based navigation highlights each element as you move through the interface.
Big Screen Experience
See all your rooms, lights, and scenes at a glance on your TV. The large display is ideal for browsing scene galleries, monitoring room status, and controlling multiple lights at once. Perfect for setting the mood during movie night or a party — right from the couch.
Scene Activation & Light Control
Activate scenes, toggle individual lights, adjust brightness, and control entire rooms. Hold Select on a room or light for quick actions. The tvOS app connects to your Hue Bridge directly over your home network. Hue cloud remote access isn't set up on Apple TV — it doesn't need it, since your TV is always at home; set up remote access on your iPhone or iPad instead. Music sync and Entertainment streaming need a microphone, so they aren't available on Apple TV.
Apple Vision Pro (visionOS)
HueCommand runs as a native visionOS application on Apple Vision Pro. This is a purpose-built spatial computing app — not an iPad app running in compatibility mode.
Glass Backgrounds & Spatial Design
The visionOS app uses Apple's glass material system for translucent, depth-aware backgrounds that blend naturally into your environment. Windows adapt to the lighting around you, creating a sense of physical presence. Controls float with depth and the entire interface feels like a real object in your space.
Native visionOS Hover Effects
Buttons, rows, and cards use native visionOS hover effects: room and scene cards lift and controls highlight when you look at them, giving you clear visual feedback before you pinch. visionOS draws these effects itself, so the app never sees where you're looking.
Ornament Navigation
Navigation uses the visionOS ornament pattern — a floating tab bar attached to the edge of the main window rather than embedded inside it. This keeps the interface clean while giving you quick access to rooms, scenes, effects, and settings, following Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for visionOS.
Privacy & Security
HueCommand communicates directly with your Hue Bridge over your local Wi-Fi network. Your bridge credentials (IP address and application key) are stored only in your device's Keychain and are never sent to us. Optional Remote Access goes through the Philips Hue cloud using your own Hue account.
To improve the app, HueCommand sends anonymous usage analytics and crash reports through Google Firebase. This data isn't linked to your identity, contains nothing about your rooms, lights, or scenes, and is never used for ads or tracking. Turn it off any time in Settings > Privacy > Anonymous Analytics.
Microphone access (for music-reactive lighting) processes audio entirely on-device. Nothing is recorded, stored, or transmitted.
Read the full privacy policy.
Requirements
- iPhone or iPad running iOS 17.0 or later (Control Center, Lock Screen, and Action button controls require iOS 18 or later; iPhone Duo supported)
- Mac with Apple silicon or Intel running macOS 14.0 Sonoma or later
- Apple TV running tvOS 17.0 or later
- Apple Watch running watchOS 10.0 or later (for watch app)
- Apple Vision Pro running visionOS 1.0 or later (native spatial computing app)
- Philips Hue Bridge v2 (square shape) or later — or try demo mode without one
- Local Wi-Fi network shared between your device and Hue Bridge
- AI Scene Creator requires iPhone 15 Pro or later with iOS 26+
- Localized in 9 languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, and Korean
HueCommand is free to download with optional Pro subscription (monthly, yearly, or lifetime). Most core features — light control, scenes, effects, circadian rhythm, Siri Shortcuts — are free forever.
Ready to try it?
Free to download. Pro features available.
Download on the App Store