New here .. need some advice on smart bulbs.

[itsjustmeee]

Thanks for everyone for the advice. I ended up going with Hue and ordered the white starter kit with 3 additional white bulbs (so 5 white bulbs total). The more I thought about it, the whole color thing sounds really cool, but I probably wouldn't use it that much .... and I can always add them as needed.

[itsjustmeee]

One more question. Can Hue be set up to respond to both Siri AND Alexa's commands?

[Yoda_One]

I do not believe so since they are two separate systems but there are a lot of Hue apps out there which might have that option through a IFTTT interface. I am not i fan.
Just look through Apple App Store.

[DParker]

One more question. Can Hue be set up to respond to both Siri AND Alexa's commands?

Yep.  From the Hue system's perspective, Siri and Alexa are just two different clients.  When you give your Amazon account access to your Hue bridge...via the Hue cloud servers...it's not an exclusive arrangement, and you can give that same access to any number of other client software systems simultaneously (including Siri, IFTTT, etc.)

In fact you can even develop your own client software that accesses your Hue account, or access the bridge directly and submit commands/information requests to it via your web browser.

[itsjustmeee]

One more question. Can Hue be set up to respond to both Siri AND Alexa's commands?

Yep.  From the Hue system's perspective, Siri and Alexa are just two different clients.  When you give your Amazon account access to your Hue bridge...via the Hue cloud servers...it's not an exclusive arrangement, and you can give that same access to any number of other client software systems simultaneously (including Siri, IFTTT, etc.)

Nice. that's what I was hoping for! Thanks.

In fact you can even develop your own client software that accesses your Hue account, or access the bridge directly and submit commands/information requests to it via your web browser.

[itsjustmeee]

Well, I have my Hue system up and running and for the most part it works great. Occasionally though with Alexa I will tell her to turn the living room  lights on which she will do but then she will say "I'm sorry living room lights doesn't seem to be responding" or something like that even though it actually did respond.  Is that something that happens to anyone else or is it fairly common?

[DParker]

Occasionally though with Alexa I will tell her to turn the living room  lights on which she will do but then she will say "I'm sorry living room lights doesn't seem to be responding" or something like that even though it actually did respond.  Is that something that happens to anyone else or is it fairly common?

I had that happen occasionally as well with my Hue bridge.  The most likely cause was the Hue servers receiving your commands as passed to them by the Amazon servers, but nthe acknowledgement not making it back within the expected amount of time (due to network congestiin, sever load, etc.)  It's mildly annoying, but doesn't impact functionality in any way.

[itsjustmeee]

Occasionally though with Alexa I will tell her to turn the living room  lights on which she will do but then she will say "I'm sorry living room lights doesn't seem to be responding" or something like that even though it actually did respond.  Is that something that happens to anyone else or is it fairly common?

I had that happen occasionally as well with my Hue bridge.  The most likely cause was the Hue servers receiving your commands as passed to them by the Amazon servers, but nthe acknowledgement not making it back within the expected amount of time (due to network congestiin, sever load, etc.)  It's mildly annoying, but doesn't impact functionality in any way.

Thanks for all of your help here. I'm curious, is there actually some command to give to the Echo to find out what the wifi connection speed is?

[DParker]

I'm curious, is there actually some command to give to the Echo to find out what the wifi connection speed is?

I don't think so, but if you're asking that in connection with this issue then that really wouldn't tell you much anyway, since it would only give you an approximate throughput figure for data transfer between your Echo and whichever Amazon server it's connected to.  The delay, if there is one, is likely to be mostly somewhere between Amazon and the Hue servers (and possibly the Hue servers themselves).

[Yoda_One]

+1

[DParker]

I should also add the two legs of communication  between the Hue server and your bridge (one leg to the bridge and then another back to the server) to the occasion.

[itsjustmeee]

I just got 3 more B & W lights. One problem I seem to keep having is that sometimes not all lights will respond. For example, I have 3 lights in my living room. When I give the command to either turn them off or on, once in a while one light will not work. When I go into the Hue app on my iPhone, it says that it's "unreachable" but when I tap on it in the app, it responds so it clearly is reachable. I'm not sure if it's just my hub placement or what. Any suggestions?

[Yoda_One]

Have Echo search for your bulbs.,............ Alexa find my devices.

[zagu8]

im using philips hues and its the best... there is also a chinese alternative. not as good as philips but works with philips hue bridges