Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

Because a skin sack with an MBA needs their yearly bonus.

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First time buying an IoT device I take it?

Can we stop the overuse and over-generalization of "enshitification" which Doctorow had given very explicit meaning to in regards to social networks? It does not simply mean commoditization which is not quite the same but almost synonymous with 'race to the bottom's in regards of trying to increase revenue while simultaneously decreasing costs.

Edit: I'll admit narrowing to "social networks" is a bit too narrow, but the point still stands that it's for two way platforms where there are "two markets." Phillips Hue does not have a two sided market.

Didn't amazon want to be able to secretly piggiback on other known WiFi networks of other wifis known to amazon through connected devices, when some users would refuse to connect their decides to their WiFi? I think I remember something like that, but don't know what came of it. Might have just been a nightmare.

Hue uses Zigbee though, doesn't it? In my experience they're the most reliable Zigbee lights with the most consistent light output, and work very well as routers.

I run hue and home assistant and hue has given me about 300% fewer problems than either hass or z-wave have. The hardware is solid, and if they force me into an account I'll just spin up zigbee2mqtt.

I agree that Hue bulbs are expensive compared to others but they generally are considered some of the best bulbs for color accuracy and build quality. I've considered getting Hue bulbs before but definitely wont be now.

I bought 8 hue bulbs for $12 each like 6 years ago and every one of those suckers still work to this day. And the bridge came with the bundle. I just looked up a replacement bulb and its $20 per bulb. If those still last as long as my originals I will happily keep using them. They have worked flawlessly on my homekit schedule and they turn off at 1am and turn on at dusk every day without fail.

I’ve been using ikea bulbs since I started with home automation and have had no issues. Some I connect directly to my Zigbee receiver and others I connect to the dirigera hub which home assistant sees through HomeKit.

I replaced my light switches with ZigBee light switches and just use ordinary light bulbs instead. Obviously no dimming or changing color possible, but that's what the nightlights and led strips are for.

@Crow @IsoKiero ikea, cheap and they are working

Probably home assistant? Thats what I use.

The old Hue app still works and I'm also using Hue Essentials, both without any account.

I have a Hue bridge of the 1st generation and a few years ago, the original app was showing pop-ups, that I need to get a new bridge because of the new app that will no longer support my old bridge. So I just kept the old app and the old bridge. Works like a charm all offline.

When I added a motion detector two years ago, the old app didn't find it for setup. That's when I tested the alternative app Hue Essentials and it works just fine offline.

Get a zigbee dongle and add the bulbs to HA directly. For a sunrise alarm I use this Blueprint

Since the Hue bulbs are using the Zigbee standard, you can still safely buy them in the foreseeable future and just connect it with something like SkyConnect, zzh!, Conbee, etc. and use it with Home Assistant

There is no need to reflash them. Thy're zigbee, you can just connect them to a different hub or to a zigbee dongle.