Hue Lights vs Smart Hue Remote
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hue Lights
Unlock advanced control for your smart lights. Create custom scenes, schedules, and dynamic lighting effects. Enhance your home ambiance with unique features like simulated weather and fire.
- Precise lighting control
- Multi-room scenes
- Customizable schedules
- Dynamic lighting effects
- Hue sensor and switch configuration
- Apple Watch integration
- In-app purchase for special effects
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Hue Lights offers full feature support for all of your smart lighting needs: Precise control, multi-room scenes, schedules, sequences, dynamic lighting, and special effects. Create advanced configurations for your Hue motion sensor, Hue dimmer switch or Hue Tap. Check out our sample videos and FAQ at https://huelights.com. Teach your lights new tricks with Hue Lights! Completely customize each button on your Hue dimmer switch or Hue Tap. Control 8 scenes from a single Hue dimmer switch, change brightness speeds, or select groups based on duration of button press. Hue Lights leverages the latest firmware to store scene details directly on the bridge. You can view and edit shared scenes from any device on your network. The UI offers improved visual feedback and easier on/off/brightness controls directly from the home screen. Try the sequences feature to see amazing possibilities at your fingertips. Use your Apple Watch to activate scenes, adjust group brightness and trigger alerts. Escape to the beach with soothing ocean, lake, or creek sounds while your lights gently change and dim (Water In-App purchase). Experience amazing thunderstorms (In-App purchase) with customized controls for lightning strikes, rain density, bird songs, wind speed, sleep timer, brightness and sky color! Simulate realistic fires (In-App purchase) with dedicated controls for fire type, fire size, flare-ups and brightness. If you have any problems with previous In-App purchases, tap "Restore." Please see the comprehensive FAQ and documentation at https://huelights.com for App help. The free version allows control of lights 1 and 2. In-App purchases can unlock all lights and special effects. Hue Lights brings you shared scenes and groups, comprehensive scheduling, sequences and powerful light controls. Create multiple "On" and "Off" schedules per scene. Tap a row to select a light, group, or scene. Use quick controls at the bottom of the screen. Long press a row for quick actions (on, choose color, edit, off). Save scenes from any third-party app and use Hue Lights to activate these on your Apple Watch. Dynamically animate or schedule any scene from third-party apps. All screens are optimized for your favorite iOS devices in portrait and landscape mode. Hue Lights works well with any third-party app that saves scenes or schedules on the bridge. Do you have a favorite scene from another app that you use frequently? With Hue Lights you can turn this scene on or off with one tap! Hue Lights will show every schedule saved on your bridge from any app and give you the option to disable or remove unwanted schedules. Features: • Interactive widgets • Fire and candle effects • Light and group timers • Remote control • Hue motion sensor support • Hue dimmer switch/Hue Tap support • Sunrise/sunset actions • View/edit scenes and schedules on bridge • View/delete rules and sensors • See exact watts used on supported lights • 3D Touch on app icon • TouchLink for finding lost bulbs • Sequences • Apple Watch support • Dynamic animations • Scene themes • Supports multiple third-party ZigBee lights • Light, group and scene schedules • Tap bulb image to apply a favorite color • Localized VoiceOver support • Heuristics for working around common errors • Create transition times up to 90 minutes • Designed to work well with 50+ light deployments Experience multi-track, synchronized and visually appealing light animations and sequences. Requires "Hue Personal Wireless Lighting Starter Set" to operate. "Hue Personal Wireless Lighting" is a trademark owned by Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., see www.meethue.com for more information. LapApps, LLC is in no way affiliated with the Philips organization. Follow @HueLights on X and like our Facebook page for the latest news and updates. See https://huelights.com for more documentation and supported hardware.
Smart Hue Remote
Control your Philips Hue lights with dynamic and animated colors. Choose from over 50 pre-set lighting scenes or create your own. Requires a Philips Hue bridge and lights, and your phone and bridge must be on the same network.
- Dynamic and animated colors
- Over 50 lighting scenes
- Scene categories: Fruits, Lamps, Sky, Baby Night Lights, Northern Lights, Fire, Club, Paris, New York
- Philips Hue bridge and lights integration
- iOS 9.0+ compatibility
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Make your room look AMAZING!! Smart Hue Remote lets you easily control Lights with dynamic and animated colors. [Scenes] There're more than 50 amazing lighting scenes. Fruits / Lamps / Sky / Baby Night Lights / Northern Lights / Fire Club / Paris / New York (Coming Soon) / Las Vegas (Coming Soon) Seoul (Coming Soon) / Tokyo (Coming Soon) * You should have Philips HUE bridge and lights to use this application. * Make sure your phone and Hue bridge are connected to the same network. * Smart Hue Remote works with all iOS running version 9.0 software or later Disclaimer: *Smart Hue Remote application is not an official product of Philips.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Hue Lights at 45% against Smart Hue Remote's 0%. Hue Lights also leads on rating (4.1 vs 3.3) and ratings volume (464 vs 4). Smart Hue Remote's advantage is iOS requirement (9.0 vs 11.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Hue Lights sells 9 one-off in-app purchases and Smart Hue Remote sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Hue Lights holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hue Lights has 464 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 45% of Hue Lights's written reviews are positive against 0% of Smart Hue Remote's.
Hue Lights ships an update every 5 months, Smart Hue Remote every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hue Lights | Smart Hue Remote |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (464 ratings) — better | 3.3 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 45.2% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 464 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 53 MB | 140 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | LapApps, LLC | TINAC Inc. |
Customer experience
Hue Lights
Smart Hue Remote
Bugs and requests
Hue Lights
Reported bugs
4 issues- Lights not responding to commands
- Scenes not loading or activating properly
- Frequent crashes and connection issues
- Unexpected changes to light groups and settings
Requested features
4 requests- Alexa/Siri integration and voice control
- Ability to run effects/animations in the background
- More customization options for sunrise/sunset scenes
- Better widget and Apple Watch support
Smart Hue Remote
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Hue Lights
- Unlock 100 ScenesFree
- Thunderstorm$1.99
- Fire$1.99
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Water$1.99
- Perfect Sunrise$1.99
- Richer Colors and Scenes$1.99
- Premium Actions$1.99
- Premium Sequences$1.99
- Unlock 48 Lights$4.99
Smart Hue Remote
- Unlimit Light Selection$0.99
- Northern Lights Scene$0.99
- Fire Scene$0.99
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Club Scene$0.99
- Weather Scene$0.99
- Paris Scene$1.99
Questions
Is Hue Lights free?
Is Smart Hue Remote free?
Which has better reviews, Hue Lights or Smart Hue Remote?
Do Hue Lights or Smart Hue Remote have ads?
Which is updated more often, Hue Lights or Smart Hue Remote?
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