Smartthings & Philips Hue Integration

I can see in the Smartthings app that there are two different integrations between smartthings and hue - one cloud based and the other LAN based. Are there any functional differences between these two approaches other than response speed and reliability?

I’m looking for the best way to access hue motion sensors in smartthings. The cloud based link I am using at the moment has been very temperamental today (the sensors are detecting motion, and controlling lights accordingly, but this isn’t being picked up by Smartthings) so I am considering finally buying a Smartthings bridge for better reliability - so long as the motion sensors will still be visible with the alternative connection method.

Thanks

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I suspect, but do not know for sure, that the cloud to cloud option is there primarily for smartthings customers who do not have a smartthings/Aeotec hub. And remember at this point that’s over 90% of smartthings customers: they have a Samsung smart appliance, or television, but not the hub. You can still have a pretty nice setup in that situation, including using hue sensors and smart bulbs, Meross or tplink kasa WiFi smart plugs and switches, ring, Arlo, ecobee, etc.

So I think the biggest difference is just that you don’t need a smartthings hub for the cloud to cloud option.

Logically, you would think that the local LAN option would be more reliable, and perhaps a little more responsive, But since we are in the middle of a huge architecture transition and the official LAN edge driver for Hue is not ready yet, it’s hard to say for sure.

On the other hand, there is a community-created edge Driver using the Hue hub locally with a smartthings/Aeotec hub which has a lot of features that the official integration does not, including the ability to use rooms, groups, and scenes created in the hue app. So I think that’s the most feature-Rich integration right now.

But again, since the official edge driver isn’t completed yet, it’s hard to know for sure what will be available in the future. :thinking:

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Thanks for that. I’ve got my eye on the official and third party edge drivers but know they don’t do what I want at the moment. They make the motion sensors visible in smartthings but don’t update when motion is actually detected because edge doesn’t support server sent events yet.

I guess what I’m really wondering is whether motion sensors are supported in the current (non edge) LAN integration and whether, at the end of the year, that integration will continue to work until edge is brought up to the same standard.

If it is and will, I’ll buy a hub today. If it’s not, I’ll hold off and wait and see what happens to edge over the next few weeks and months. A temperamental cloud based integration is better than a non-existent edge one!

They do currently work with the old non-edge LAN integration, they were only added to that one this year. But I don’t know how often the events update

As far as what the edge LAN driver integration will be, I think we just don’t know. It’s possible it will have even less functionality if they decide to use matter integration instead of something custom. I know the question has been asked, I just don’t think it’s been answered. :thinking: