This post is also available in: Deutsch (German)
One of iConnectHue’s great features are Animations on your Philips Hue bridge. Animations are dynamic scenes – they change over the course of time.
Contrary to many other apps, they are stored directly on your bridge – allowing you to turn off your device, and thus saving you battery life. They can also be stored on switches, activated from timers and be called via Siri Shortcuts and started from the widget.
They also work with 3rd party lights, but not every light is capable of managing Animations like Philips Hue lights do. See here which lights are fit to be used with Animations and which have problems.
- How to access Animations
- How to create a new Animation
- Repetitions
- Fade durations
- Additional options
- Sharing and editing
How to access Animations
Choose any room or group, and tap on the icon on the right bottom. It’s a circle with a play button in it.
iConnectHue is stocked with many ready-made Animations like “Summer delights” and also seasonal packages such as “Spooky Halloween” (only available in October and November).
Furthermore we included “Sunrise” and “Sunset” Animations, that will not run continuously, but let your lights get turned on or off slowly.
Numerous Animations are for free, while others are in-app purchases.
You may create one Animation free of charge, but the full Animation editor costs a little money.
To start an Animation, just tap on it. To stop, tap on the square stop button top right or directly at the Animation.
*Tip: You can also stop an Animation by turning off the group or selecting a scene.
As Animations run from the bridge, the lamp status will not be updated immediately.
How to create a new Animation
Select “Create new animation” to create a new Animation.
This will open a pop-up, where you may first name your new Animation.
By selecting the plus symbol top left you can add a step with any colour, scene or magic scene you want.
As scenes are only valid for a chosen group, it is recommended to use Magic Scenes instead, as they are independent of the actual lamps.
When choosing Magic Scenes, the saturation can be set again, like in the Magic Scene editor.
Repetitions
Please note that Animations need at least 2 steps and are limited to 8 overall.
You can delete a step by selecting the edit pencil top right and the X at the step.
Once you have decided on the colours and scenes, more details can be specified.
By tapping on the line from last to first step you can decide if the Animation should stop after a whole run or start again from the beginning.
The green checkmark stands for loops, while the red “X” shows that it’ll stop after one run.
Fade durations
“Fade duration per step” defines the time, in which the lamps fade from one step to the next; from 0 seconds up to 60 minutes.
Fade type
“Fade type” describes how multiple lights fade to the next color.
There are four options to choose from:
- Normal:
When switching between colors, the same transition time is always used. - Progressive:
Transition times start from the shortest time a light is displayed and extend to the time it’s fully visible.
In progressive mode, the first light in the group starts with the shortest display time, and this time is increased for each subsequent light until it reaches maximum. This means the first light appears the fastest, with others following slower. Backwards is similar, but the order of shortest and longest times is reversed, so the first light would fade the fastest, followed by the others. - Random:
The Min/Max display time is used during random transitions to generate variable display times. This is widely used, for example, in most fire animations.
Additional options
“Wait after step” is the amount of time each colour or scene is displayed before the lamps fade to the next step.
When “Allow brightness per step” is turned off, you can specifiy the initial brightness.
This also allows you to change the brightness of the lamps while the Animation is running.
If you turn it on, you can define the brightness in each individual step for colours and Magic Scenes, but not normal scenes – here the scene brightness is chosen.
When everything is set, you can test your Animation by selecting “Start”.
If you don’t like the result yet, just select “Stop” and change your settings.
Once it’s perfect, you can save the new Animation by selecting “Done”.
It will appear at the top of your Animations list.
Sharing and editing
If you would like to change something again in the future (or delete the Animation), just select the edit pencil and the three dots at the Animation.
Here you can choose “Edit” to change something, add the Animation as a Siri shortcut (Animation upgrade or membership required), duplicate it or share it with another device (membership required) or add it to the group widget (Pro membership required),