Why use emulated hue bridge?

Configuration
1

Hello.

I have multiple hue bulbs and the work fine via my echo dot and via Home Assistant, but I see there is an Emulated hue bridge in HA. Why would I use it please? what benefit would I gain? as I just don’t see much point in using it… I just want to understand what I would gain by using it.

Thanks
Mark

2

It is a component to connect HA with Amazon Echo or Google Home.

3

To build on what @Danielhiversen said, it does NOT replace the hardware hub that Hue bulbs connect to. Seems like a lot of people get confused on that point.

It ACTS like a hub so that HA can easily be controlled by Echo/Google .

4

thanks, so what extra can I do? sorry for being thick… so I could say “Echo use a HA scene”? instead of creating multiple scenes on different phones etc?

5

You can control non-Hue devices, run scripts, etc. Anything that HA can do.

6

I have components in HA that my Alexa can’t control directly. For example, I have many zwave devices. With the emulated_hue, I can use Alexa to control all those. It is called “emulated hue” because it works by HA pretending it is a Hue bridge to trick Alexa. Alexa thinks it is turning on or off Hue lights, but really it is talking to HA.

2 Likes
7

possibly a silly question also but does this need the actual google home hardware thing, or will it work with just the google assistant on the phone (specifically Samsung s7) I have the app for google home but I can’t seem to distinguish whether people are talking about hardware or software

8

I’m just catching up on all this myself, but read in another thread that you do need a physical google home and not through google assistant alone. What I can’t figure out is why Google assistant is generally needed if you are using a Google Home?

Edit: words

9

MarkR, I have no Hue devices at all. emulated hue is how I connect all my non-Hue devices to Alexa.

If your devices are supported by Alexa natively this may not be that useful. But to answer your question, emulated hue is for exposing things in HA to devices that work with Hue (like Alexa).