Thanks to Apple’s HomeKit home automation system and the versatility of Siri, you can now control your home lighting with just your voice. Keep reading as we show it off with Philips Hue.
To control your smart home lighting, you need a few things. First of all, you need an iOS device that runs Siri and updated to at least iOS 8.1 or higher to support HomeKit.
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You will also need a HomeKit-enabled lighting system. For demonstration purposes, we are using a Philips Hue 2nd generation system (with an updated bridge that supports HomeKit).
Note. If you were a Hue pioneer, you can keep the Hue bulbs you have, but you will need to upgrade the 1st gen Hue bridge to the 2nd gen model.
How to set up Siri Control for Philips Hue
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Make sure you set this up on the iOS device in your household that the owner/parent/home automation controller is using and signed in as HomeKit is associated with your iCloud login. You wouldn’t want to use your child’s iPad to set up HomeKit settings (if that child has their own iCloud ID), because then you’d always have to go back to the iPad to make changes and have to share it with HomeKit. Configuration with your other devices (instead of you, the managing agent, share HomeKit settings with them). If you accidentally set up your HomeKit system with the wrong Cloud ID, don’t panic, just reset the HomeKit configuration on the device you mistakenly used to set up your system.
To pair Hue Bridge with HomeKit and enable Siri control, start by opening the Hue app and tap the settings button in the top left corner of the screen.
From there, select Siri Voice Control.
Click «Pair Bridge» at the bottom.