# MagicHue — Disco effect for Philips hue

> Philips Hue light controller for dynamic color and music-reactive effects. (iPhone/iPad app by Peter Breitling.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/magichue/id586219707 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Peter Breitling](https://appshunter.io/developer/286215120)
- Category: Entertainment, Lifestyle
- Price: Free
- Rating: 3.40/5 from 25 App Store ratings · 115 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 9.0 · 9 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2012-12-19
- Data updated: 2026-08-13
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/magichue/id586219707/reviews.md

## What is MagicHue?

Free for a limited time! You are looking for a new way to experience your philips hue lights?

Then meet the hue app that transforms your rooms into living color art: From relaxing smooth fading to a highly dynamic visual music experience. Use it for a romantic dinner setup or your next party at home! 

This version features:

Common functions:

◆ Switch disco bulbs on/off quick button
◆ Each light can be controlled individually
◆ Disable Auto-Lock to keep the app running
◆ Multiple Bridge Support

Disco effect functions:

◆ Control any subset of lights for the disco effect
◆ Brightness and saturation control 
◆ Free selectable hue (color) fading speed 
◆ Selectable light position along the hue fading 
◆ Microphone sensitivity can be adjusted
◆ 6 Predefined light presets plus one user defined 
◆ Multiple devices can control different rooms according to local acoustic

and we are working on a lot of more cool features that will be included with future updates for free!

NOTES

This app uses the microphone to convert music or voice input to light effects. It does not (yet) listen to music that is played on the iPhone itself.

REQUIREMENTS

- Requires iOS 8.1 or higher and the Philips hue kit

## Key features

- Disco effect for Philips Hue lights
- Music and voice-reactive light effects
- Individual light control
- Brightness and saturation control
- Adjustable fading speed and light position
- Multiple bridge support
- Predefined and custom light presets

## What do users think of MagicHue?

Overall sentiment: mixed

**Pros**

- ✨ Fantastic disco sync
- 🎶 Music synchronization works well
- 💡 Great for parties
- 🚀 Fast color changes
- 👍 Easy setup
- 🌟 Magical room atmosphere
- 🎉 Gets the party lit
- 💯 Amazing app
- 🥳 Fun for entertaining
- 🌈 Good dance option
- 💖 Great addition to Hue
- 💡 Extends Hue possibilities
- 🌟 Outstanding control
- ✨ Awesome app for Hue
- 🚀 Drives bulbs fast
- 💯 Exactly what you need
- 👍 Works well
- ✨ Nice companion app
- 🌈 Good ish
- 👍 Works as designed
- ✨ Relax mode is good

**Cons**

- 🐛 Does not respond to music
- 🐛 Cycles colors endlessly
- 🐛 No longer shows connected lights
- 🐛 Doesn't work at all
- 🐛 Complex setup and UI
- 🐛 Disco effect does nothing
- 🐛 Requires a URL
- 🐛 Not intuitive
- 🐛 Bridge connection shows yellow
- 🐛 Doesn't work with v2 bridge
- 🐛 Rubbish
- 🐛 Junk
- 🐛 Horrible laggy UI
- 🐛 Graphics from 1980s
- 🐛 Visual aids don't match lights
- 🐛 Doesn't find all bulbs
- 🐛 Horrible laggy user interface
- 🐛 Incompatible with Hue Bridge 2.0
- 🐛 Cannot find bridge
- 🐛 Bad app
- 🐛 Complex and sometimes doesn't work
- 🐛 Rubbish doesn't work
- 🐛 Annoyed and frustrating
- 🐛 Disappointed
- 🐛 Poor support
- 🐛 Only finds few bulbs
- 🐛 Junk
- 🐛 Doesn't work
- 🐛 Ya no me conecta
- 🐛 Not so great
- 🐛 Can't start with scene
- 🐛 Can't use iTunes directly
- 🐛 Can't quit app
- 🐛 Color changes only brightness
- 🐛 Useless without music
- 🐛 Amateur
- 🐛 User interface far from 1st rate
- 🐛 Crashes after 2 mins
- 🐛 Constantly crashes
- 🐛 Crashes after running for minutes
- 🐛 Baffling
- 🐛 Newer version is worse
- 🐛 Freezes iPad
- 🐛 Bad audio feedback on iPad
- 🐛 Won't pair
- 🐛 Looks Awful
- 🐛 Poorly written
- 🐛 Documentation stinks
- 🐛 Embarrassing layout
- 🐛 No manual turn off
- 🐛 Not what you are looking for
- 🐛 Can't get light to work
- 🐛 Constant crashing
- 🐛 Crashes after about 2 minutes

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Only shows 0 connected lights
- No longer works
- Doesn't work at all
- App crashes
- Disco effect does nothing
- Requires a URL
- Found bridge but no lights
- Bridge connection shows yellow
- Doesn't appear to work with a v2 bridge
- Doesn't find all bulbs
- Only found bulbs originally paired to bridge
- App just does not work at all
- Cannot find the bridge
- Doesn't find any of my lights
- Complex and sometimes it doesn't work
- Rubbish doesn't work useless
- App doesn't work
- Only finds 2 of my 23 bulbs
- Doesn't connect to Bridge hue
- Can't get past first page of 'select bridge'
- Can't just start with a scene from the main Hue app
- Can't use feed from iTunes directly
- Can't seem to quit the app
- Color changes only brightness
- Doesn't allow you to play music while running
- Amateur
- Only got this app to work once
- New version constantly crashes
- Crashes after 2 mins
- Constantly crashes
- Crashes after running for a few minutes or with several lights
- App quickly freezes
- iPad becomes completely disabled and a reboot is necessary
- App goes berserk if more than 8 bulbs are activated
- Causes really bad audio feedback on iPad2
- Won't pair
- Poorly written
- Documentation stinks
- Layout buttons and interface is embarrassing
- Can't seem to find a good way to turn off completely
- When I think I have done it and then open my Philips Hue it goe right back to Disco
- Not what you are looking for
- Can't get light to work
- Constant crashing
- Crashes after about 2 minutes running in disco mode
- Baffling
- No noticeable improvements
- Freezes iPad less with update
- Still goes berserk if more than 8 bulbs are activated
- Equalizer bar issue (corrected)
- Bad audio feedback on iPad2
- Won't pair
- Looks Awful

**Most requested features**

- Pickup music from the same phone
- Strobe like features
- Ability to select a range of colors to cycle through
- More control of which colors it cycles through
- Update for Hue Bridge 2.0 with HomeKit support
- Ability to play music while running
- More user inputs in color selections
- Strobe button with presets and custom options
- Wave feature moving colors from bulb to bulb
- Interface overhaul for general usability
- Timers added
- More flexibility and control over lights
- Less crashes
- Ability to select specific colors
- Recurring timers
- Sync to turn on lights based on sunset times
- Timed fade to work

## Recent user reviews (10 of 115)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/magichue/id586219707/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Seems good

*2021-03-04*

Haven’t tried it for long but it works pretty well!

### 1/5 — Komisches Teil

*2020-11-14*

??

### 5/5 — Fab disco sync with amazon music

*2019-12-23*

Fantastic app, really easy to set up, took me two minutes and now have disco lights in my kitchen and dining room. Using Amazon to stream music around the house and the mic on the iPad pics up the sound to sync perfectly.

### 5/5 — Mehr solche Apps bitte!

*2019-12-01*

Guter Script für alle Lights ohne versteckte Inappzocker Kosten!!!

### 1/5 — Just cycles colors regardless of music?

*2019-08-17*

Maybe I just haven’t figured out how this app works, but it doesn’t seem to respond to music in any way.  It just seems to rotate through colors endlessly, even when music isn’t playing.  Confused.  Will look elsewhere for a Hue music app.

**Developer response:** Hi, yes, colors cycle in the speed you select. But the brightness level is controlled live per light. The brightness is controlled per frequency spectrum you select for the light (bass, mids or highs)! Best regards, Peter

### 4/5 — Appli gratuite sympa

*2019-08-16*

Première application vraiment gratuite et qui fonctionne correctement même si l’interface n’est pas très claire. Une petite mise à jour et cela devrait être parfait :)

### 4/5 — Great App Works well

*2019-06-12*

I have had this app for six years now and has always worked as designed. Wish it could pickup music from the same phone and have strobe like features. Overall 4+ app.

### 1/5 — Findet Lampen nicht!

*2019-01-28*

App ist nutzlos, da meine Lampen nicht gefunden werden können. Bridge hat aktuelle Updates drauf und ich nutze das iPhone 8.. zudem stürzt die App oft ab. Daher 1/5 Sternen.

### 1/5 — stürzt alle paar Minuten ab

*2018-12-31*

ständige sporadische Abstürze und teilweise plötzlicher Funktionsausfall. Man muss die App dann schließen und neu starten... schlecht

### 4/5 — Worked for a while...

*2018-12-23*

Now it only shows me 0 connected lights. Too bad...

Update: reinstalled the apps and now it works, it shows me all my lights.

## Frequently asked questions about MagicHue

### What does MagicHue do?

MagicHue transforms your Philips Hue lights into dynamic, colorful art. It offers features ranging from relaxing smooth fading to highly dynamic visual music experiences, allowing you to set the mood for any occasion.

### What are the key features of MagicHue?

Key features include a disco effect for your Hue lights, individual light control, brightness and saturation adjustments, customizable color fading speed and light position, microphone sensitivity control, and multiple bridge support. It also offers predefined and user-defined light presets.

### Is MagicHue free to use?

Yes, the app is currently free for a limited time. The developers also state that many more cool features will be included in future updates for free.

### What are the requirements to use MagicHue?

MagicHue requires iOS 8.1 or higher and the Philips Hue kit. The app uses the microphone to convert music or voice input into light effects.

### How does the music-reactive feature work?

The app uses your device's microphone to listen to music or voice input and translates it into light effects. You can adjust the microphone sensitivity to fine-tune the responsiveness of your lights to the audio.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.8 — 2017-12-14

This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.

- iPhone X Support
- Bugfixes

Please rate the App if you like it!

### 1.7 — 2016-03-03

Fixed an issue with lights not being showing up in the disco effect view.

If you like it and it works please update your reviews to help support this product.

### 1.6 — 2016-01-13

Fixed the infamous bug where bridge could report 0 lights! Thanks to Erden for helping to find the cause!

If you like it and it works now please update your reviews to help support this product. Thanks for your patience!

### 1.5 — 2015-11-24

- Philips Hue 2015 compatibility (finally)
- iPad Pro compatibility
- Optimizations regarding light interactivity

### 1.4 — 2015-10-29

iOS9 compatibility

We are working on compatibility with the new hue bridge, stay tuned, thanks!

## Apps similar to MagicHue

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [STROBE: DJ Disco Party Lights](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/strobe-dj-disco-party-lights/id1641899708) | 4.3 (12) | Free | Entertainment |
| [Strobe Light - Flash Beats](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/strobe-light-flash-beats/id1457903998) | 4.4 (3,779) | Free | Entertainment |
| [Inspire Cinema](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/inspire-cinema/id1114936260) | — | Free | Entertainment |
| [New York Comic Con 2025](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/new-york-comic-con-2025/id1138079360) | 2.6 (131) | Free | Entertainment |
| [Digiflix: Videos & Movies](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/digiflix-videos-and-movies/id1144811240) | — | Free | Entertainment |
| [当たる無料恋愛占い2017〜人気の占いで結婚運を占おう！](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/2017/id1146111860) | — | Free | Entertainment |

## More apps by Peter Breitling

- [Clinometer + bubble level](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/clinometer-plus-bubble-level/id286215117)
- [Contacts last entries & search](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/contacts-last-entries-and-search/id294325239)
- [Bubble level and Clinometer](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bubble-level-and-clinometer/id304152770)
- [MagnetMeter](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/magnetmeter/id346516607)
- [AccelMeter](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/accelmeter/id346525189)
- [iSetSquare](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/isetsquare/id382820922)

All apps by Peter Breitling: https://appshunter.io/developer/286215120

## Related topics

[peter breitling](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/peter-breitling)

---

*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 2026-08-13.*