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How to Turn Multiple Smart Lights On or Off at the Same Time Using Stringify

Every night when I go to bed, I want to turn off all my lights…except the bedroom light. I want to turn on this light before bed. Using Stringify, I can finally create one voice command that turns off some lights and others.

RELATED: How to Use Stringify for Crazy Powerful Home Automation

Philips Hue can turn multiple lights on or off with Alexa, but it can’t do both with a single voice action. That’s where Stringify comes in. Stringify is a very powerful automation tool that allows you to link all your smart gadgets and online services. If you’ve never used it before, check out our tutorial on the subject here, and then come back here to create a Thread.

For this Stringify Flow, we are going to change multiple lights at the same time to create a scene. Stringify can turn multiple lights on or off, change their brightness, or change the color of a light with a single command. Depending on how many smart lights you have and what your daily routines are, you can use the same principle to create a set of different types of commands. For example:

  • Turn off the lights at home before bed. A bedtime flush can turn off all the lights in your living room and turn on the lights in your bedroom.
  • Activate theater-style lighting for the duration of the movie. You can use Flow to turn off your living room lights and turn on your TV backlight to get ready for a movie.
  • Dim the lights for cozy reading. With one command, you can turn off the overhead light in the living room, but set one light next to the sofa to low light so you can read.

The process for creating all these types of scenes (and many more) is basically the same, but we’ll demonstrate it with a simple bedtime routine. To do this, you’ll need to add your smart lights and voice assistant to Stringify Things (we’ll be using Philips Hue and Alexa for the demo). To get started, open the Stringify app on your phone. Click the round plus button at the bottom and click «Create New Thread».

At the top of the screen, click «Name your stream» and give it a name.

Click the big plus button at the bottom of the screen to add your items.

From the list of your things, add Alexa and any lights you want to change. You can also use Google Assistant instead of Alexa to do the same if you have a Google Home or want to activate this stream from your phone.

Back on the circle grid page, drag Alex onto one of the circles. Click on the gear icon that pops out from behind the Alexa logo.

Click «Ask Alexa to start the flow», the only trigger on this page.

On the next page, you can create your own voice command. Enter your activation phrase in the «Trigger Words» field. In this case, we use «time to go to bed». Click «Save» when finished.

Then drag and drop your smart lights onto the grid. As we covered in our original guide, actions should be to the right of triggers. In this case, we have three lights, so they should be placed on a vertical line to the right of Alexa, as shown in the grid below.

Once you have placed all the lights, click on the gear icon for the first light.

From the list of actions, select «Turn Lights On» or «Turn Lights Off». In this case, we want to turn off the Living Room and Office, but turn on the light in the Bedroom. On the second screen, click Save at the bottom. Repeat these steps for each light in your stream.

Back on the Flow grid, swipe from the Alexa circle to each light one at a time, as shown below. Each hit should create a link with a yellow circle between Alexa and the light you touched. When you’re done, it should look like the image on the right. Click «Enable Stream» when you’re done.

Now you can try your stream! To activate it, say «Alexa, tell Stringify your bedtime.» Alexa will issue a Stringify command and your lights should turn on or off as appropriate. You can add as much light as you want to your stream. You can also mix and match actions. For example, you can turn on one light, turn off another light, set a third light to a specific color, and set a fourth light to a specific brightness for just one trigger.

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