Philips Hue Control – Instructions
UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2024: The application is no longer available on the Samsung store, because Samsung decided to end the support for Tizen smartwatch apps (you can read more about this HERE). Because of this, we are forced to cease the development of the application on the Tizen platform. We, as developers on the Tizen platform, are as disappointed as our users are, about this decision, but the only thing we can do is to look to the future. From now on we will focus on the Wear OS platform, where we are working on creating an even more powerful version of this app. Stay tuned for more updates!
Philips Hue Control lets you control your Philips Hue lights using your Tizen smartwatch. This application requires a Philips Hue bridge to control your lights.
Download link: https://galaxystore.samsung.com/geardetail/To2eRA17X2
Please take your time to read these instructions before buying/using the application, to avoid any problems and misunderstandings. Everything about the application is written here. If you experience problems that are not explained on this page, please contact me.
Requirements
- Have a Philips Hue Bridge that is connected to your network and updated to the latest firmware version, or at least to version 1.28.
You can update your bridge using the official Philips Hue application. - Have at least one Philips Hue light connected to your bridge.
- Have at least Tizen 4 on your smartwatch. Tizen is the operating system of your smartwatch. If the Tizen version of your smartwatch is lower than Tizen 4, update it to the latest version. All smartwatches supported by the app can be updated to at least Tizen 4.
If you don’t know how to setup your Philips Hue system, please watch this short video, or this one, which is more detailed.
Connect to your bridge
- Make sure that your smartwatch is connected to your Wi-Fi network.
- Your smartwatch and your bridge need to be on the same network. You should not be connected to a VPN.
- The application does not need your smartphone in order to work, but if your smartwatch is connected through Bluetooth to your smartphone, the app will use the internet connection of your smartphone, not the Wi-Fi of the smartwatch. This is a rule imposed by the operating system. To summarize, if your smartwatch is connected to your smartphone through Bluetooth, make sure that your smartphone is connected to Wi-Fi. Otherwise, enable the Wi-Fi on the smartwatch.
- Open Philips Hue Control, go to Configuration and click on Add new bridge. You’ll have the option to try to find the bridge automatically or to add it manually. If you select the first option, the application will try to find all your bridges on your network automatically. Only the bridges connected to your network that have internet access will be found. If your bridge does not have internet access, you’ll need to add its IP address manually.
- If your bridge is found automatically, it will appear on the bridges list.
- If your bridge is not found, you can select to add it manually.
- To delete a bridge from the bridges list, hold your finger on it for a few seconds.
- With your bridge showing up in the bridges list of the Philips Hue Control, click on it to select it as the active bridge. The active bridge is the one you can control. You can have multiple bridges but you can control only one a time. The active bridge has its name colored in yellow. If it’s the first time you’ve connected to that bridge with this application, you’ll be asked to press the button of the bridge in order to connect.
- At first, every new bridge has its name set to Name not yet loaded. The name will be updated to the actual name of the bridge when you’ll press the Control button from the menu, to load data from the bridge.
- With a bridge set as active in the bridges list, you are now able to control that bridge and all the lights connected to it.
Manually add a bridge
In case your bridge is not found automatically, you’ll have to add it manually, by inserting its IP address in the application.
To find out what’s the IP address of your bridge, use the official Philips Hue application like in the images below. Open the app, go to Settings, select Hue Bridges, and click on the ‘i’ button on the right side. A page with information about your bridge will appear and you’ll find your bridge’s IP address there. Insert this IP in the Philips Hue Control and it will appear on the bridges list.



Control your lights
Within the app, you can control your lights individually or as groups.
To create new groups, use the official Philips Hue application.
Each time you click on the Control button from the menu, new data is loaded from the bridge.
If some of your lights are displayed with a Might be unreachable message beneath them it means that the light might not be turned on from the physical switch, so it’s not connected to electricity.
Scenes
You can switch between different scenes on each of your group of lights. Each scene is displayed by the app with a generated mix of colors that matches the color and brightness of the lights in the scene.
Within the app you can also create new scenes. Before you create a new scene for a group, go and change all the lights in that group the way you want them to be while the scene is active. After you have set all the lights in the group to the colors and brightness you desire, click on the Create new scene button, set a name to the scene and it will be created.
Widget
The application comes with a widget from which you can enable/disable your lights and groups faster and easier.
The widget also lets you switch between the scenes of your groups.
The widget needs Wi-Fi connection from your paired smartphone or from your smartwatch in order to work. As opposed to the application, the widget can also work if your paired smartphone is not connected to Wi-Fi, but your smartwatch is. That’s because the widget uses a different software architecture.
By clicking on the name of a group displayed on the widget, the list with its corresponding scenes will appear.
In order to use the widget, you need to initialize it and also you need to have a bridge selected as active in the bridges list.
If you select another bridge as active in the app, other than the one with which you’ve initialized the widget, the widget will remain initialized with the old bridge. If you want it to display lights and groups from the newly selected bridge, you need to re-initialize the widget.
If you delete the bridge with which you’ve initialized the widget, the widget will become uninitialized.
If you’ve added lights, groups, or scenes and you want them to appear in the widget after it was initialized, just redo the initialization process.
Widget initialization
To initialize the widget, go to the app’s menu and click on the ‘Configuration’ button. After that, click on the ‘Widget setup’ button. An informative popup will appear. Click on the ‘Next’ button from the bottom of the page. After loading data from the active bridge, a list with all the lights and groups will be displayed. Select the lights and groups you want to be displayed by the widget. The order you select them will be the order they will appear on the widget. After that, click on the ‘Finish setup’ button from the bottom of the list and the widget will be ready to use.
Common widget error messages
Widget not initialized
You need to initialize the widget from the application in order to use it.
To do this, go to the app’s menu and click on the ‘Configuration’ button. After that, click on the ‘Widget setup’ button. An informative popup will appear. Click on the ‘Next’ button from the bottom of the page. You need to have a bridge selected as active from the bridges list. After loading data from the bridge, a list with all the lights and groups will be displayed. Select the lights and groups you want to be displayed by the widget. The order you select them will be the order they will appear on the widget. After that, click on the ‘Finish setup’ button from the bottom of the list and the widget will be ready to use.
Error code 7 or Error code 52
These error codes appear when the smartwatch does not have access to your Wi-Fi network. Turn on the Wi-Fi on the smartwatch or on the paired smartphone.
Timeout error
This error appears when your Wi-Fi connection is very weak or your network is overloaded, so the bridge cannot be accessed in a reasonable amount of time.
It can also appear when your bridge is not connected to your network, is powered off or its IP address has changed. If its IP address has changed, remove it from the bridges list and add it again.
Bridge error
These errors appear when your bridge does not accept the commands you sent to it.
If the description of the error is ‘unauthorized user’ it means that you revoked the permission of the app to use the bridge. To solve this, remove the bridge from the bridges list, add it again and re-initialize the widget.
Common application error messages
Network error
This error appears when the smartwatch does not have access to your Wi-Fi network. If your smartwatch is paired to your smartphone through Bluetooth, it will use the internet connection of the smartphone, so you’ll have to enable the Wi-Fi on your smartphone. If the smartwatch is not paired to anything, you need to turn on the Wi-Fi on your smartwatch. You
need to connect to the same network as your bridge is in. If you are using mobile data on the smartphone, you will most likely not be in the same network as your bridge.
Timeout error
This error appears when your Wi-Fi connection is very weak or your network is overloaded, so the bridge cannot be accessed in a reasonable amount of time.
It can also appear when your bridge is not connected to your network, is powered off or its IP address has changed. If its IP address has changed, remove it from the bridges list and add it again.
Resource error or response not parsable as JSON
These errors are VERY rare. In general it means that the bridge’s IP is not correctly set or has changed. You’ll need to remove your bridge from your bridges list and retry adding it.
Bridge error
These errors appear when your bridge does not accept the commands you sent to it. Errors of this type come with a description that might help you understand the reason behind them.
If the reason is ‘unauthorized user’ it means that you revoked the permission of the app to use the bridge. To solve this, remove the bridge from the bridges list and add it again.
Bridges cannot be found automatically error
The Philps Hue online services that the app uses to find your bridges automatically have a rate limit per IP. This means that if you try to find the bridges automatically more than once per 15 minutes, per IP, you’ll get this error message. Since an IP address can be shared by many people, potentially people with Philips Hue lights, there might be situations when you cannot find your bridges, because other people tried that in that time interval. The solution in this case is to try again later or to add your bridge manually, by inserting its IP address in the app.
Other problems
If you experience difficulties with the application and these instructions didn’t solve the problem, don’t hesitate to contact me!
I check my email constantly and respond as soon as possible.
I am also open to suggestions for improvements to the application.
If you’d like to be a beta tester for the application, please contact me! Beta testers are required to have a Samsung smartphone (due to Samsung’s policy) paired with their smartwatches.