How much did you set as transition time?
I’ve updated my AppStore review for the official Hue app to 1 star, given these changes. As soon as the bridge stops working without Internet access, it will go into e-waste. What a shame…
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The issue for me is that I know what I’m getting into with Facebook, iCloud, etc. Hue is relying on customers not wanting to lose access to expensive hardware. Nice home automation you have there, it would be horrible if something happened to it.
It’s the extortion aspect that makes me angry. That, and they lie and say it is about security, when in fact it is about data collection. As others have said, it will likely be less secure once the add new data collection features.
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Im really on the fence here with this one from a functionality point of view.
On one hand, I really really dont like the whole “change functionality after purchase” thing that Hue are doing. I really like the fact that it’s offline and I dont need an account. And happy in this respect to move everything to ZHA and get rid of the hub.
However, we are big hue and apple users here and using the hub to show the light devices in the Home app is very handy. If HA goes offline (which it has done when I was traveling once), the wife can continue to turn lights on and off via the Home app. This was a big plus.
Interested if anyone else has the same thoughts here.
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Kind of the reason I am using Z2M, as it is decoupled from Home Assistant.
If HA goes down (never really happens to me though), or I got to restart the instance because I am tinkering/updating etc., then Z2M just soldiers on.
The reasons I could see compels users to use the bridge, is features like dynamic scenes, support for HDMI sync box etc.
The first should be solvable just through a custom component (and some effort has been made), but the second requires a hardware solution that is built upon open source software.
Hyperion exists, but it’s anything but user friendly to setup, compared to the Hue equivalent.
And EVERYONE accepts (and expects) that! It’s so weird that humans allow companies to behave like sh!t but we condemn the same behavior from our fellow humans 
Just think about when a friend/neighbor would offer/advise for product Y (let’s just say he produces it for whatever reason) and after years that it is working great like advised (locally, without internet account) he comes over and tells you: “Sorry, we gotta need to change things and we need to connect you to the cloud for security reasons”. 
Because if data isn’t collected and saved it can’t be leaked 
Just ask motel one they “lost” around 24 million files they accumulated (~6TB) 
Motel One, one of Europe’s largest hotel chains, has confirmed it was the target of a ransomware attack that saw hackers access customer data.
Wanting to see if anyone else is having the same experience but I blocked my hue hub from public outbound about 2 weeks ago, device hasn’t restarted and as of this morning HA is failing to send calls to my hub. Curious if a switch flipped or something happened because my HA, nor hub nor power or anything cycled but now I’m getting HTTP/500 errors when trying to turn off/on lights or activate scenes.
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I’ve received another response from the support team, and I’m uncertain whether they are making changes, if there was a miscommunication, or if what they’ve just stated may not entirely align with the facts. They first say something with “after creating an account” but later say that I don’t need to be logged in.
The creation of a Hue Account will become essential.
This being said, your local integrations with Philips Hue products will keep working without internet connection, after creating an account in our app.
The point above means: You will not need to be logged in, in case you do not wish to do so. As in, your Home System will not work through Cloud, as per your statement.
However, just like before, cloud-based integrations — smart speakers, Out of home control, or Spotify, as few examples — will not be available if there is no internet connection.
I’ve requested confirmation about the app remaining not needing an account to use (and to add/manage lights).
Mine is completely broken as well. I can’t trigger anything.
I was holding off in migrating over to my Zigbee stick zigbee2mqtt until I had more time so that I would not have a big downtime. With my exterior ambience lights no longer working / turning on I guess I need to move quickly in deprecating my hue hub.
One thing I did notice in my hue app. All my hue labs things are broken. In Automations / hue labs / My Labs I go into any of the ones I have had configured for a long time. The labs are broken. I know they are broken as I make no change to the hue labs formula but try to Install it again I get an error message.
“invalid value, 34, for parameter, lights”
I have been using a hue Zone to encompass multiple rooms at once. When I edit the formula to not target a zone but instead actual rooms then it will save out.
I’m done with it. Done. By by hue hub just as soon as I can migrate to my zigbee2mqtt / zigbee stick.
I don’t even care if we don’t yet have perfect options for doing lighting scenes. I know our community is working on replicating that.
The Hue integration in my HA kept saying setup failed and lights went unavailable paired with lots of
2023-10-10 14:25:59.939 DEBUG (MainThread) [aiohue.v2[192.168.120.75]] Got 503 or 429 error from Hue bridge, retry request in 1.5 seconds
From HA debug logging. Restarted my hub and now appears to be working. Still blocked from public internet and have not even opened my Hue app in months.
Did someone update the latest HUE mobile app before they get problems using lights? I blocked the access for hub to internet. I’m not updating my mobile app because scared that this app will do something with the hub so it’s broken as well like the 2 posts above…
After requesting confirmation of the above reply, I got the following statement:
We acknowledge the banner with the message mentioning that signing in would be necessary.
However, this signing in is for setting up your entire Hue System, at least once.
After that, you are free to simply log out of your account and use your system entirely locally, without being logged in your Hue Account.
I also asked about Matter currently requiring an account:
The integration with Matter, for the time being, is being handled as an online / live-service, as such, customers that wish to use these services will need to be logged in, as it’s the only way we can guarantee your system will be up to date with all other devices connected to it, and will remain secured.
We have to use our consumer power to stand up against all companies that tries to lure us into these unacceptable privacy policies. Abandon Phillips and all others who play the same dirty games!
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or give customers the free choose to allow there data usage. Here on HA many people won’t allow it but outside there are thousands maybe millions of people who don’t care are at all.
So all companies can use their data usage and keep the wizzkids alone buy default disable data usage sharing.
Everybody happy I think?
Maybe slightly off-topic, but… Why do people use Phillips Hue bulbs? They are expensive compared to dumb LED bulbs and I haven’t seen any compelling feature other than color that can’t be done using a smart switch controlling dumb bulbs. Is color really that important?
The colour temperature and brightness is automatically controlled by HA, depending on the time of day. With your method you only get half the solution.
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The color is way better, and when you want orange colors, it is important. I’ve noticed most color bulbs have bad oranges, greens, and pinks, but have good blues, reds, and purples. Where hue has good color for all colors.
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It’s funny how this comes up a lot, oranges on most devices are terrible - on Hue and Inovelli it’s pretty good. You wouldn’t think one would care about orange until you use color bulbs!
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Maybe I asked the question wrong. Do you REALLY need COLOR? What’s wrong with on-off and dim? Why do you need color that makes the extra cost worth spending?