Do Philips Hue Bulbs Work With Touch Lamps

DO PHILLIPS HUE WORK WITH TOUCH LAMPS

If you’re familiar with smart lights, you’re probably also familiar with the many capabilities of Philips Hue bulbs. With these popular bulbs, you can sync your lights with your alarm, music, notifications, movies, games, and even the weather. The best part is that you can tweak all these settings on an app in your phone. So, it’s only natural that people would want them to work with other things they have at home like touch lamps, for example. 

Do Philips Hue Bulbs Work With Touch Lamps? No, Philips Hue is not compatible with touch lamps. This is because Philips Hue bulbs are meant to be controlled on an app or through a dimmer switch sold separately by Philips. If installed on touch lamps, Philips Hue will only work at 100% brightness and not reflect any other brightness levels. 

Since Philips Hue bulbs do not work with touch lamps, in this article, we will be discussing what you can use them with if you want dimming settings. We will also tackle how you can control brightness levels with the Philips Hue app. If you want to know what smart devices to use with Philips Hue to have them function as if they were connected to touch lamps, continue reading. 

Understanding how Philips Hue Bulbs Work 

Getting to Know Philips Hue Bulbs

Philips Hue bulbs, as you well know, are the frontrunners in smart lighting. Being one of the first brands to introduce this technology, they are very popular for their innovative features that make using smart lights very convenient and intuitive. Aside from its features, Philips Hue bulbs are also known for being compatible with a lot of smart home platforms like Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Home, and IFTTT. 

Setting Up Philips Hue Bulbs 

Philips Hue bulbs come with a hub that is plugged into your router. Although newer generations of the bulbs don’t need this hub to be connected to your phone, you will miss out on a lot of features if you don’t get this with your bulbs. Moreover, if you don’t get the hub, you will only have the bulbs connected to your phone through Bluetooth and this will limit the integrations you can do with your smart lights. 

Philips Hue Bulbs Don’t Work With Touch Lamps

Why people want to know whether or not Philips Hue bulbs work with touch lamps is best exemplified by a user’s question on Reddit: “I guess with Hue’s abilities, you wouldn’t need to use a dimmer switch, but I guess I’m asking for a bulb that would go in a lamp or socket that is already a 3-way or on a dimmer.” Basically, people like you want to know if you can have Philips Hue work with other light equipment you have at home like touch lamps. 

However, Philips Hue bulbs are not made to be controlled by other equipment like touch lamps. They are meant to be controlled from your phone or through a separate dimmer switch sold by Philips as well as other official accessories. Simply said, it is only through the app that you can dim the light down to the exact percentage that you want. If you are comfortable enough with brightness levels or a number of pre-selected scenes, you can purchase the accessories sold by Philips. 

Philips Hue Bulbs When Plugged in to Touch Lamps

It is important to note that a Philips Hue bulb may work when plugged in to touch lamps. But, this is only possible when the touch lamps are set to 100% brightness. When the lamp is set to any other brightness level lower than 100%, the Hue bulbs will not work. Hence, the basic conclusion in this article that, technically, Philips Hue bulbs don’t work with touch lamps. 

Furthermore, when you do have the Philips bulbs plugged in touch lamps, the only way you will be able to control the brightness level is through the app. This renders the purpose of having them plugged in to touch lamps useless because you won’t be able to control brightness through simply tapping the lamp. 

The touch lamp must also be on at all times for you to control the bulbs through the app. If the Philips Hue bulbs don’t have access to power, they will not be able to respond to the app’s commands to change the brightness. Then again, this inconvenience adds to the reasons why Philips Hue bulbs are not meant to be used with touch lamps. 

Accessories You Can Use to Control Hue Bulbs’ Brightness

If you’re feeling disappointed about the incompatibility of Philips Hue bulbs and touch lamps, you don’t have to be. There are a number of accessories Philips has created for you to choose from and use with their bulbs. Such accessories will enable you to do what you envisioned doing with touch lamps. Perhaps, they will even be more convenient and easier for you  to use than your existing touch lamps at home. 

Hue Dimmer Switch 

hue dimmer switch

The Philips Hue Dimmer switch is a wireless accessory that can act both as a wall switch (when attached with the included adhesive) and a remote control (when removed from the magnetic base). This smart switch comes with four pre-selected light recipes: Energize, Concentrate, Read, and Relax. However, you can customize this selection through your phone in the Hue app. What also makes the Hue Dimmer Switch accessory very convenient is how you can connect and control up to 10 lights with it. 

Hue Motion Sensor

hue motion sensor

With the Hue Motion Sensor, you can automate your lights and set it to adjust to the time of the day. If you want to change the light scenes you can tap on this accessory, you can easily do so through the app. Aside from that, what makes it an efficient investment is how it is also made for wireless and hassle-free installation. Furthermore, because it is battery-powered, it can be mounted anywhere. This characteristic makes it very efficient for its main function which is to trigger Philips Hue bulbs to turn on with movements it senses. 

Philips Hue Tap

hue tap sensor

Lastly, Philips Hue Tap gives you access to four preset light scenes without the use of the Hue app through your phone. Philips Hue Tap also gets a lot of good reviews because it does not need WiFi to function and it is powered by kinetic energy. This means that when you press the switch, that motion generates enough energy to power the Philips Hue Tap to send a signal to your bulbs. 

However, it still does require a Philips Hue bridge to be integrated to your home lighting system. Once connected, the Hue Tap can control one or multiple rooms, you can change the settings however you like. 

Conclusion 

All in all, although Philips Hue bulbs do not work with touch lamps, there are a few other options for you to choose from to still have the convenience of a few taps and switches to change the brightness of your bulbs. Needless to say, if you want to get Hue bulbs to plug them in to your touch lamps, that may not be the wisest and most cost-efficient purchasing decision as of the moment. So, buy items that can work how you intend them to work to get the bang for your buck. 

If you’re interested in reading more about some of the more unusual capabilities of hue smart lights checkout some of the other houshia articles including:

Steve Foster

Suburbanite, tech geek, handy man, automation enthusiast who started blogging about the stuff I do around my home and found he had a knack for it.

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