Philips Hue gets Spotify integration and 1600 lumen bulbs

Signify has expanded its smart lighting offering, announced integration with Spotify and announced support for the Matter smart home protocol. Spotify integration will start as an early access program and will appear in the app in October.

Signify announces a range of new lamps, including a light strip, ceiling lamps and a candle lamp. The main announcement concerns the Philips Hue + Spotify integration. Users can link their Hue and Spotify accounts in the Hue app for this. They can then have their Hue lighting respond to music that Spotify is playing. The lighting can not only reflect the beats, but according to Signify, the lighting also adapts to the genre and atmosphere of music. Users can also adjust the brightness and colors themselves via the new Sync tab of the Hue app. For the automated response to the music, Philips Hue uses the metadata that Spotify sends with songs, according to Signify, but the manufacturer does not provide details about how this works.

The Spotify integration can be used as an early access function in the Philips Hue 4 app from September 1. After October, the Philips Hue + Spotify feature will become a standard feature for all users of that app. The feature works in conjunction with both Spotify Free and Premium. Signify also announced support for Matter for smart homes again. Hue Bridge will receive an update in the first half of 2022 so that existing lamps can handle the protocol. In addition, the Hue App 4 will receive support for dynamic scenes from 1 September with which the lighting in both rooms and zones can slowly transition from one scene to another.

The Philips Hue HDMI Sync Box will also receive a software update. This means that the device can handle 120Hz image refreshment. The resolution is a maximum of 1080p or 1440p. For 4k images, compatibility is limited to 60Hz.

As for lamps themselves, Signify announced that lighting in the White, White Ambiance and White & Color Ambiance series will be expanded with lamps with a maximum brightness of 1100 and 1600 lumens, in addition to the 800 lumen range. The lamps with a maximum of 1600 lumens are slightly larger: they are 2 cm longer than the rest of the range. Furthermore, there will be a White Ambiance version of the Filament lamp, whose hue can be adjusted by users, and an E14 candle lamp will be added to the Filament series.

Signify expands the Gradient collection of multi-color lighting in a single lamp with a light tube for above or below a TV. The compact version will cost 180 euros and the wider variant 200 euros. They will be released from October 12.

Furthermore, flat square and rectangular Surimu ceiling panels and more traditional Enrave ceiling lamps are appearing. The Enrave also appears as a pendant lamp. Xamento recessed spotlights and Devere ceiling lamps appear in the bathroom.