Philips Hue gets a great free update that makes the app more intuitive

Philips Hue is a great addition to any smart home, providing automated and remote controllable lighting that can change the look and feel of rooms at the tap of a button.

However, it is also addictive. Set up a couple of Hue bulbs and you'll soon want more – and as you add extra smart lighting and zones to your setup, you'll soon realise that the dedicated Philips Hue app becomes awash with tappable tiles.

It can leave you with the app equivalent of the game Guess Who as you scroll to find the one light you want to switch on or off.

You can, of course, just use your voice if you have a supported Alexa or Google Assistant device nearby, but even that can become a pain: "No Alexa, I said living room lights, not book two flights..."

Thankfully, a new free update to the app (v5.23) has arrived to make things much more simple. You can now search for zones, rooms, individual lights and even scenes from the home tab.

It's a tiny additional feature, but oh so useful.

In addition, the hueblog reports that you can now start and stop the "go to sleep" automation from Hue Dimmer Switches and Smart Buttons.

Another small change is for those who own the new Hue Secure products, such as the Floodlight Camera. They can now quickly change the arming status directly from the Security Card or Security Center.

The app update is available now for both iOS and Android (and iPadOS). You might have already noticed the changes if you have updates set to automatically download and install. Otherwise, check your respective app store to see if the update needs to be approved.

Philips Hue also recently introduced another capability for its security products – they can now trigger an alarm automatically when they detect motion. Previously, users had to trigger the alarm sound themselves after receiving an alert.