[mikequinlan]

My Hue smart bulbs retain connectivity and configuration settings when powered off (via the light switch). If they didn't it would be awful -- you would have to reconnect and reconfigure every bulb in the house after each power outage. I assume the data is stored in some kind of flash memory.

[filoleg]

My personal guess would be that the settings are stored either on the Hue hub or within the app you use to connect to it. Mostly because, I've noticed, after someone turns off my Hue bulbs by accident by flipping the switch and then turns them on, they don't get restored to the same scene setting as they were before. I have to manually change back to the scene it was on before being powered off.

On another hand, after reading some articles a while ago that mentioned security issues surrounding smart bulbs (when it comes to selling them to someone after using them in your own home due to some persisted settings), I bet that your theory could be correct as well.

[inferiorhuman]

That changed with updated bulb firmware. Initially bulbs would reset to their default state on power on, but they're now able to save state. The way I read it this behavior is not dependent upon the hub or app.

The Phillips app is so junky I just use the hard power switches somewhat frequently.

https://huehomelighting.com/new-power-feature-to-retain-colo...

[filoleg]

Luckily, their protocol is interoperable, so I don't think you are required to use their app, even for their initial setup (not 100% sure on the last part, but I am about 90% there).

Their lights work great with HomeKit, as well as many other devices do. So instead of having a separate app for Kasa switches, app for Hue, app for LiFX, and an app for Nanoleaf, I can control them all straight from HomeKit. Considering that this is easily doable, it seems totally possible to do this with something other than just HomeKit as well.

[inferiorhuman]

Their lights work great with HomeKit, as well as many other devices do. So instead of having a separate app for Kasa switches, app for Hue, app for LiFX, and an app for Nanoleaf, I can control them all straight from HomeKit. Considering that this is easily doable, it seems totally possible to do this with something other than just HomeKit as well.

Ehhh... I can't speak to the rest of the HomeKit integration but the Siri stuff isn't so great either. First it required upgrading the hub, it still only works with Philips bulbs (even though the Hue can control other smart bulbs like IKEA whatevers). After setting it up I still get "device not responding" responses from Siri at least 1/5th of the time.

Using a different app would potentially improve the problems between the hub and phone, but not between the hub and the zigbee devices.

[Relys]

Yeah I hacked around on the Hue REST API a few years back and this is how it works.