Live data from Hacker News

Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

twitter.com

21–30 of 153 posts

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They market their bulbs as having a 15 year life span.

The bridge will still work from your private network and one can still control the lights with the app. All that's being disabled is the external control.

...which all the digital assistants like Google Home or Alexa use, so this breaks voice commands for those. For most people, that's the main reason to have smart lights.

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#22
AFAIK the bulbs are compatible with v1 and v2 hubs, so the bulbs do not need to be replaced. The v1 hubs will continue to work across a local area network. Philips offered a heavily discounted upgrade for v1 hub users to get a new v2 hub.

However, I still think they should support the v1 hubs for the lifespan of a typical bulb (15 years), at minimum.

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#25
post #3

This is exactly the reason why the Twitter account "internet of shit" was created. Yes I know it's vulgar. https://twitter.com/internetofshit?lang=en But it's worth scrolling through the previous posts by that account to see a myriad of similar "your expensive internet-dependent thing is now useless" scenarios.

[REDACTED] Agree with child comment.

Ads in a product you pay for and ads in a Twitter account you don't pay for are hardly comparable.

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#26
post #6

Well - they've done a pretty good job of ensuring that if I get smart lights again, I'm definitely not buying Philips. This change breaks all the digital assistant integrations ("Hey Google, turn on the lights"), which is pretty much the only reason to have smart lights in the first place. If you can't use voice commands, you might as well just use the wall switches. Who wants to pull out their phone and switch the l…

I know this isn't the point you're making, but I find smart lights useful for automatically turning on or off at various times. I don't use Hue, but I think that part should still work if you lost internet connectivity.

I suspect HomeKit integrations like "if the door unlocks, and it is night, turn the light on" will break.

Re: Philips Hue Bridge v1 online services will be shut off after April 2020

#30
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe they factored in 8 years worth of service?

They market their bulbs as having a 15 year life span.

The bulbs are compatible with the newer bridges. While misleading, that isn't false.
Post reply on HN