The driver supports the discovery of Philips Hue Hubs on your local network as well as devices that are connected. Here are the top level features:
Features:
Import Rooms and Zones defined in the Hue app and allow group level control. No more popcorn effect
Import individual lights
Import motion sensors along with temperature and illuminance
Import switches, buttons and rotary dials
Access to scenes defined in the Hue app for use with rooms/zones
Access to circadian lighting “smart scenes” from the Hue app
Access to lighting effects (candle, fire, etc) for use with individual lights (needs to be enabled in hub settings)
Access to alerts/blinking for use in notification automations. This can only run for 15 second intervals due to the design within Hue. Works with rooms/zones/lights (needs to be enabled in hub settings)
Color and color temperature control of rooms/zones/light via automations
Discover devices by hub or by room
Known Issues:
The Hue scenes API produces a very large amount of data. If you have too many scenes on your hub, it will fail to sync them over. This currently cannot be avoided. If it occurs, the fix is to remove some scenes within the Hue app itself.
SmartThings sometimes fails to fully initialize devices. This happens more frequently when many devices are added at once. This can be handled by performing a ST hub restart after the addition of new devices. This doesn’t effect most users, but does happen to users with large setups.
To install the driver, enroll in the beta channel via this invite, and install the Hue driver. Then discover new devices within ST and the hub device should appear. Go into this newly created hub device and you will see an option to link (aka. authenticate) it with your Hue hub. Follow the prompts and press the button on your Hue hub when instructed. After linking the hub, you can then stay on that screen and discover further devices by using the “Add Devices” menu. You can also discover devices by room/zone later on if you wish.
TLDR
Thanks to @AutomateYourLife for putting together this how-to video. You can skip the screenshots below if you’d rather watch his more thorough introduction. The only other thing I’d recommend is to perform a ST hub restart after adding Hue hubs through discovery. It isn’t required, but there are a few ST issues that can be avoided by performing this step.
There was an issue with the original invite link and it was linking to the wrong channel. The original post has been fixed. Please use this link if you previously used the original.
Just trying this now and can’t discover any devices using the “scan nearby” function. I can see the driver is installed correctly on the ST hub.
Do I need to delete the existing Hue devices and hubs from ST first?
I am asking you before I do that, as I have quite a few devices and associated routines, so don’t want to risk a mass deletion if in fact I am doing something else wrong. Thanks!
I was working on the driver and forgot the most important part in the directions. You need to press the button on your hue hub to put it in pairing mode. I updated the directions above:
Edit. This is no longer needed as the driver has been replaced and updated. You should now follow the linking instructions in the Hub device that is created.
What affect will putting the hub into pairing mode have on existing Hue devices? Again, quite a few existing devices, and while I’d love to add the rooms and scenes in, I don’t want it to mess up the devices and routines I already have set.
It should not effect them. It is a security feature of the Hue system that allows it to be controlled by third parties. The driver is designed to run alongside the existing Hue integration if desired. Discovery of lights is disabled by default in the settings for this reason. You later have the option to enable it if you want to remove the ST implementation
Thanks I have it working now and it’s great. So much easier to import a group from Hue, rather than a load of individual lights into ST. It also is a lot faster, and no “popcorn” as you say.
One immediate thought/request - can a dimmer slider be added, as is available in the Hue app? Using your new driver I can switch on/off, play a favourite, use an effect, but not dim:
Also just doing some tinkering and noticed in a Routine I am unable to play a favourite - when I select it in the routine, rather than a menu to pick which favourite I want, I get a blank text box
It’s a text field and you need to type in the name of the scene. Case doesn’t matter. ST will not currently allow that menu to be presented in routines.
Thank you so much for this driver - I was right on the edge of the 200 device and routine limits and now… plenty to spare
Way fewer and simpler routines, no actual bulbs in ST, all scenes now handled by Hue and virtually no need for Smart Lighting either. All this and faster, smoother and inclusive transitions!
That is what I call a result - even if it has taken all day , can’t wait for the inclusion of motion and buttons
(If there is any chance of a refresh option to update favourites, that would be the icing on the cake!)
Refreshing the room/zone should pull over the latest scenes. It will also occasionally pull them over by itself to stay in sync. I have seen a refresh bug in ST where the event is sent, but the driver is never called. If it isn’t working, you may be hitting that. That issue is true for all drivers, not just this one.
So if I install this what happens to what I currently have installed. I have the hue hub already on my ST and have all of you bulbs from hue over on ST too. What happens to all of them and what they are all associated with ( automations etc )
@blueyetisoftware When you say refresh is this a scan for new devices?
I am not seeing scenes being updated without first deleting the Room/Zone prior to scan. I have all discovery options checked on the Hubs except for lights. I am running driver version:
Refreshing a device in ST can be done by going into the detail view of a device and performing a pull-to-refresh. If you do that to a room/zone device, it will look for the latest scenes. If you don’t do anything, it should automatically sync them every hour. The scenes API is very data intensive, so the syncing is setup to be pretty lazy for now.
I actually have a version that allows you to control the dimmer and color. The issue is that Hue will not report it back to ST, so the status is inaccurate. Since it is a group of lights, there isn’t a single brightness or color value to report back.
So it can be controlled, but the status isn’t accurate when you have multiple lights with different settings. I have been thinking about a reasonable way to set the status for a group. Currently thinking of using the average brightness and color. It’s a lot of work to manage though, so I want to make sure it’s worth it.
Yes. It will be available on individual lights soon. Not all bulbs support color and I’m looking for a clean way to support those that do without cluttering the UI for those that don’t.
Thnak you!!
When controlling on the dimmerswitch or hue app, the status (ON, OFF) is not refreshed on st.
Lighting on HUE app —>> ST app status continuous off (doesn’t match.)
Lighting off HUE app —>> ST app status off (match.)
Lighting on ST app —>> HUE app status on (match.)
Lighting off ST app —>> HUE app status off (match.)
Lighting on HUE dial switch —>> HUE app status on (match.), ST app status off (doesn’t match)
, can’t wait for the inclusion of motion and buttons 
