Author: Dylan Wallace Email: wallad3@unlv.nevada.edu
Date: Last modified on 01/03/17
Keywords: Smart Home, Hue, API, SDK, Android, Java

This tutorial is the second part of a series of tutorials on Smart Home development. If you have not yet performed the Nest Control Tutorial, please do this first, as this tutorial builds on the knowledge of the previous tutorial. This tutorial serves as a starting point for Philips Hue development using Android. Hue development can also be done with iOS, and many third-party SDKs, but we will not cover these in this tutorial. For more info on those, see the Hue SDKs website.

The Philips Hue API utilizes HTTP requests to the HUE Bridge on a local network to read/write data to the Hue lights. This API also allows users to control groups of lights, schedules, sensors, and scenes. This gives the user a lot of flexibility when developing an app for Hue.

In order to control Hue lights, we simply need to utilize the Hue Android SDK to control our Hue bridge, no other clients or authentication needed. This makes developing for the Hue much easier than a platform such as the Nest or api.ai.