OK, Google. Let’s do cool stuff.
Google Home does more than play music. It’s designed to be a smart controller for your connected things around the home. Of course, one of the most popular connected thing on many homes is a Philips Hue bridge and one or more connected lamps. Using Google Home it’s easy to control your Hue lamps with your voice. Here’s how to get things set up.
- Download the Philips Hue app from Google Play. If you have an iPhone or an iPad get it from the app store. You need to set everything up and get the bridge connected to your network using the official Hue app. If you’re connecting the Hue bridge to a router that’s in bridge mode, make sure you can connect your phone on the same side of the bridged router. If you don’t know what this means you probably don’t have a bridged router and don’t have to worry about it. Also, yo dawg I heard you like bridges so I put a bridge in your bridge.
- Use your Google account to set up the Hue app. Use this same Google account to set up Google Home.
- Once everything works and is properly connected, open the Google Home app on your phone. You need to be connected to the Internet either through your WiFi or through your carrier service.
- Open the hamburger menu (slide in from the left) and find the entry labeled Home control and tap to open it.
- Tap the plus button and choose Philips Hue from the list.
- Follow the instructions on the page that opens and enter your Google account information when it asks you to. You’ll need to press the button on your bridge during the setup so make sure everything is where you can reach it.
- Start talking to your lamps!
Here’s what you can say.
- To turn on/off a light say: “Turn on (light name)”
- To dim a light say: “Dim the (light name)”
- To brighten a light say: “Brighten the (light name)”
- To set a light brightness to a certain percentage say: “Set (light name) to 50%”
- To dim or brighten a light by a certain percentage say: ‘Dim/Brighten (light name) by 50%”
- To change the color of a light say: “Turn (light name) green”
- To turn all lights on/off in a room say: “Turn on/off lights in (room name)”
- To turn all lights on/off say: “Turn on/off all of the lights”
If you have multiple lights in a room and have set up the group as a room in your Hue account, anything that works with one light will also work with an entire room. Just say the room name instead of the individual light name.
I haven’t touched a light switch since I got this thing, and I think it works great. Keep an eye on AC for more things you can do with your Google Home!
Google Home
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