Api By @f12r on Unsplash
Last week, Signify – The company behind Philips hue – announced that the new version of their API is out for the public. The Philips Hue API V2. According to their website, moving from the first version of the API to version 2 is a breaking change. The new Philips Hue API V2 is still a RESTful JSON HTTP API. But the whole structure has been redefined for improvements and future use cases. The V2 API is not yet completely finished, but for features that exist in both versions, it’s recommended to use V2. Just check if your bridge is at least at version 1948086000 before using the new API.
If you are still using the first version of their API don’t worry, both versions will coexist next to each other for the time being. This being said, any new feature will only be available for V2. Philips Hue gives their users and developers time to migrate from v1 to v2 but in the long term, they are planning to drop V1. For a full guide to migrate to the newest version I would like to refer you to this article.
To learn more about how you could use this API v2 yourself this guide will be something for you: “Easily Toggle Philips Hue Depending on Your PC State v2 “.
What is new
Although V2 of the Philips Hue API is not yet complete, some awesome new features were already added to this version. First of all, the dynamic scenes, which were added in version 4.7, are now adjustable through the API. But that’s not the only feature added to V2. The gradient technology is also added in this version. You are able to set both options with a PUT request to your light id. Read here for more information about this request.
Missing features
As stated earlier the new API is not yet completely finished. A couple of features are still only available in v1. For example, you cannot create and delete specific rooms or zones. It’s also not possible to change the name or archetype of a specific device. Another feature still missing is natural lighting. A feature that allows you to gradually change the lighting during the day depending on the time. Hopefully, this will be added soon.
There are many more features to come to the new Philips Hue API V2. Join the MoreHue.com community to get updates every week.
