# Hue Thunder for Philips Hue — user reviews > 89 indexed App Store user reviews of Hue Thunder for Philips Hue by iMakeStuff, rated 3.60/5 from 85 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hue-thunder-for-philips-hue/id1191462987/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hue-thunder-for-philips-hue/id1191462987.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 42 · 4★ 13 · 3★ 5 · 2★ 3 · 1★ 22 ## What do users think of Hue Thunder for Philips Hue? Overall sentiment: mixed **Pros** - ✨ Immersive ambiance creation - 🎧 Great sound quality - 💡 Highly customizable settings - 😴 Aids in sleep and relaxation - 🌈 Realistic lighting effects - 💰 Good value for money - 👍 User-friendly interface - ⚡ Realistic lightning effects - 🏠 Transforms room atmosphere - 💯 Well-designed app **Cons** - 🔌 Requires Hue Bridge - 🐛 App crashes frequently - 📱 Phone gets hot - ⏳ Timer function unreliable - 💡 Lighting effects freeze - 🔊 Audio not synced with thunder - 🚫 No AirPlay to multiple speakers - 💸 Overpriced for features - ❌ Phantom Hue Bridge entries - 💡 Lights stay on after timer **Commonly reported bugs** - Hue Bridge not detected - App crashes after a few minutes - Lighting effects freeze while sound continues - Sleep timer not working - App requires re-pairing with bridge repeatedly - Timer turns off app but leaves bulbs on - Audio not playing when redirected to HomePods - App crashes after a few minutes on iPhone 7+ - Phantom Hue Bridge entries created - Lights stay on after timer is done - Ambience sound not synced to thunder events - Lights continue to shine white after some lightning flashes **Most requested features** - Bridge Pro compatibility - Update for newer Hue Bridge - More customization for thunderstorm scenes (e.g., strikes per minute) - Branch out to other soundscapes (forest, wolves, whales) - More sporadic and flickering lightning - Add Siri shortcuts support - Add alarm for mornings - Support for Sonos speakers - IFTTT or Hue Tap support - Ability to specify or remove devices for lightning flashes - Option to turn off sky lighting - More control over lightning-thunder time delay - Make lightning even more frequent - 1:1 correspondence between lightning and thunder sounds - Add seizure warning for flashy effects - Restore original light scene after use - Color wheel instead of slider for better color selection - Sync to local weather - 3D experience like main Hue app for light placement - Deeper thunder with more bass - Clarification on customizable colors and individual light adjustment - Option to choose if a light is ambient, lightning, or both ## Newest reviews (11 of 89) ### 2/5 — Won’t connect to Bridge Pro *2026-03-29, version 3.0* Brilliant app, if you don’t have the Bridge Pro. I just got the Bridge Pro, but did not know that it would break compatibility with older apps. Very disappointing (both in Philips and IMakeStuff). I bought all of their apps and add-ons. ### 2/5 — Bridge Pro *2026-02-20, version 3.0* Does not work with Hue Bridge Pro ### 1/5 — Nothing changes *2024-10-26, version 3.0* This app is useless. The lights turn white-ish. Thats it. They don’t change. They don’t mimic lightening. It’s stupid. ### 4/5 — 4 stars because of the limited airplay ability. *2023-12-22* Good graphics, simple controls (for the most part) I'm still learning it. It won't let you play through more than one set of airplay speakers. I don't know if this a app problem or apple problem. I'm 90% sure the app is limiting you. ### 1/5 — Needs Smart Bridge *2022-08-04, version 3.0* This does not work with Bluetooth Hue Bulbs alone, you need the Hue Bridge. This was not in the description. ### 1/5 — Way way over sold *2022-06-08, version 3.0* This wasn’t anything like the ads. It was really lame to be honest and I have Hue all over the house. It could have been better by far. Don’t waste your money. I’d be embarrassed entertaining friends with this. ### 3/5 — Could be better *2022-01-25* It’s definitely not a bad option if you are looking for a thunderstorm app but the timing on the lights isn’t the greatest and they are slow to come on and off (this could be a hardware limitation) and for 3.99 a bit expensive for how simple there should be a way to do a slider for how far the storm is like 0 miles -10 miles Also give you the 3D experience like on the main hue app you can put in where in your room the lights for audio sync that would be a good addition to this app to make it worth the 3.99 ### 1/5 — Fails to mention bridge required *2021-10-25, version 2.9* The app may be good, but with no hue bridge, it doesn't do anything with your lights ### 3/5 — Okay for a little while… *2021-07-23* These collection of soundscapes are decent at best. Just don’t run them for extended period of time (greater than 2 hours, not sure exactly how long). After which something controlling the lights freezes, but the sounds keep playing. At which point any HomeKit lights are all placed in the default room, and given the names of default hue light. A work around I have discovered is to open the Hue (official app) and sync Hue with HomeKit. It’ll give an error saying already synced or already exists. Down side being you’ll have to group your lights again. ### 2/5 — Works, Neat for a while, Creates “phantom” light that shows in other apps. *2021-07-21* App is pretty neat. The effects are cool with a Bluetooth speaker so the sound is more full. It was fun for 5-10 mins but the novelty wore off quickly. The app created a “phantom” room or entertainment area or something on the hue bridge called “ThunderG” which I can find no way to remove. It appears on all Hue-supporting apps (including on our Vivint panel… annoying) except the official Hue app. I can find no way to delete it except completely factory resetting the Hue hub. Worst of all somehow the ThunderG room has been turning on randomly during the day for us despite it not being used in our automations. This continues to happen even after removing the app from my phone so I don’t think it’s specific to the app itself, but it certainly never happened until we tried this app… Now I’ve got to figure out how to fix it because we keep getting woken up at 3am when the lights turn on. ### 3/5 — Lightning *2021-02-10* This app is good but it would be excellent if the lightening was more sporadic and flickered the light rather than just coming on white for 5 seconds and turning off. Sounds are very good though, rain, thunder and animals/birds are spot on, just let down by the lightning. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Don’t Buy! *2026-06-24, version 3.0* Doesn’t work with Hue Bridge Pro ### 1/5 — Stay Away *2026-04-08, version 3.0* The app does not work. I’ve tried multiple times to set it up with my hue hub and it will not connect. The developer is non-responsive to requests for help. ### 1/5 — Erkennt die Hue Bridge nicht *2026-03-23* Die App ist leider nicht benutzbar weil sie gar nicht erst die Hue Bridge erkennt. ### 1/5 — Not Working *2026-03-16, version 3.0* It doesn’t seem to work with the 2025 Hue bridge. ### 1/5 — No update for Hue Bridge Pro *2026-03-06, version 3.0* All these apps were great and I purchased all of them but now none work due to no updates in 3 years and they don’t work with the new hue bridge pro. ### 1/5 — Does not work *2026-03-01, version 3.0* Piece of garbage and won’t connect to any hue bridge. Send my my 3.99 back. No option in the app for help. ### 1/5 — Doesn’t connect to Hue Pro *2025-12-26* error trying to connect to hub. wasted $5.00 and no support. i want my money back. ### 1/5 — Hue Bridge Pro *2025-11-23, version 3.0* This app needs to be updated. Doesn’t connect to the new Hue Bridge Pro ### 1/5 — No longer supported? *2025-05-06, version 3.0* This has been a well-used application for me over several years. Regrettably I don’t believe it is being supported and maintained. The last few iOS updates have broken key app functions Including the ability to direct sounds to AirPlay speakers. I recommended this app to others, but can no longer do so. ### 1/5 — Fraudulent *2025-04-10, version 3.0* App doesn’t work (no airplay support) and developer refuses to respond to user inquiries. Not sure why it’s allowed to be on the store anymore ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Bridge Pro support *2026-05-21* Please bring bridge pro compatibility. Realised it won’t work with bridge pro after bought it. ### 5/5 — Will you make an update? *2026-02-07* Ich liebe diese App. Wird sie irgendwann noch aktualisiert? Support für gute Bridge pro wäre mein Anliegen ### 5/5 — Update or the end? *2025-09-24* Really hoping for a comparability update for the Bridge Pro. This app is such a good simulator I’ve actually used it for sleep and mental health. Bummed it’s not currently working. If this is the end, I’m here to pay my respects! Thanks for a great app that helped me probably more than intended. ### 5/5 — Storm lovers ❤️ *2024-04-17, version 3.0* If you enjoy storms then you will like this app. I stream it through my home surround or HomePod and the light effects combined with the audio are very impressive! ### 5/5 — I love it *2022-10-18, version 3.0* I’ve seen a lot of the apps that say they work with hue lights but alot of the reviews seem to say these apps are really shady and don’t work well with lights or other reasons so I have been hesitant to buy any until this one. I used to put on a 12 hour YouTube video of thunderstorms but when I found this app it replaced the YouTube videos immediately. I like this app because you can customize alot of the setting like how loud you want the thunder, rain, wind individually and how often you want thunder strikes and even the brightness of the lightning or sky on your hue lights. I find this app is great for those that like to sleep to thunderstorms. I connect my phone to my surround sound via Bluetooth and then only turn on my hue strip behind my tv so it gives just enough light to look like lightning coming from a window. Ever since I’ve bought it this is now my nightly routine. Personally I would like to see a bit more customization with the thunderstorm scenes. As it stands you can set the “occurrence” of thunder strikes but even turning it all the way up doesn’t necessarily mean there are alot of thunder sounds. I think the app does a good job of mixing small and medium and big lightning strikes in together randomly but I’d like to see a setting that allows a certain number of lightning strikes and thunder sounds per minute or something like that. All in all it’s a good app. It offers 17 scenes ranging from weather to city things and rain forests. In the future I hope they branch out to soundscapes like ambient forest or wolves howling during s full moon or even whale singing. But aside from my future hopes of the app, great for helping you sleep to thunderstorms with your hue lights! Haven’t had a problem with the lights and the app working together since I bought it! ### 5/5 — Love it! *2022-08-09* I love this app. The customisation is fantastic. And it definitely helps me to go to sleep. But for some reason the sleep timer isnt working? Is that a bug that needs fixing? I’m using iOS v 15.6. ### 5/5 — Great app (two suggestions) *2022-05-30, version 3.0* This works perfectly for me and the sound is great on my HomePod. However, I can only play on one HomePod at a time. I also can’t play on multiple devices through control center because the audio doesn’t play there. Would be great if I can have the sound on more than one HomePod since I can already have the lightning on all my lights. I don’t know the limitations of hue, but it would be cool if this app could be synced to local weather, withought any manual interactions. For the cost this app is definitely worth it, it feels realistic and lighting works perfectly. ### 5/5 — Works Great! *2021-02-16* This program works great and is fun to leave running in the background. Thanks. **Developer response:** Hi Please start to delete and reinstall from the app store. Also Please make sure you allow LAN access when on iOS14. You can check this in Settings | Privacy | Local Network. Make sure the app is allowed in there. When this doesn’t work, power cycle your bridge and try again. ### 5/5 — Thank you *2020-11-25* I have to think this developer for making these apps and all of the other apps that you have been making I really appreciate all of your effort and you’re extremely well done work ### 5/5 — Great app *2020-08-26, version 2.7* Amazing immersive ambiance. Infinite possibilities to customize the ambiance. Compatible with the stereo HomePod. Really fast and nice customer service --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-01.*