Do Hue bulbs work locally? (2022)

[JDRoberts]

@jsulliweb

Considering transitioning from Lifx to Hue. A few reasons for it, but mostly, some stuff I’ve seen on here makes it seem like the Hue integration works locally. Though, I can’t find anything specifically saying it. Does it work locally or is it cloud-based? And I need the bridge, right? Tried searching, but I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Thanks!

You have a choice of two integrations for Hue.

If you don’t have a SmartThings hub, like maybe you only have a Samsung Smart Television, but you do have some hue bulbs connected to a hue bridge, then you can use a cloud to cloud connection so that your smartthings account can talk to your hue account.

If you do have a smartthings hub, then you have the option to use a local integration where your smartthings hub talks to your hue bridge over your local Internet.

You choose which option you want when you add the hue bulb to your smartthings account.

Technically, you don’t have to have a hue bridge, you can just add a hue bulb as another Zigbee bulb, but it’s not a good idea, And neither company recommends it. The hue bulbs turn out to not be good repeaters for zigbee networks other than their own and so they can mess up messaging for your other Zigbee devices. See the community FAQ:

FAQ: Do I need the Hue Bridge/Hub to Use a Hue Bulb with SmartThings?