What can you do with a Philips Hue motion sensor?

Philips Hue motion sensors are handy accessories that automatically turns on your smart lights when they detect movement — walking down the hallway or opening a door, for example — and turns them off again after a period of time.

The Hue indoor motion sensor is meant to be used inside your home. It can be installed anywhere — the hallway is one of the most popular locations, as it turns on the lights briefly so you can walk down the hall without having to switch the lights on and off.

The Hue outdoor sensor is weatherproof and made to be used outside your home, but can trigger both your outdoor and indoor smart lights. Not only can you let your lights welcome you home as you walk up the path, but you can get an added sense of security by being alerted to an unwanted presence in your front or backyard.

To use Hue indoor or outdoor motion sensors, you’ll need a Hue Bridge — the brains of the smart lighting system.

Both the indoor and outdoor Hue motion sensors are battery powered, meaning that you don’t have to worry about any wires or installing them close to a power outlet. Get set up straight out of the box in minutes: just place your motion sensor in your chosen spot using a screw or the built-in magnetic mount and set it up in the Philips Hue app.

When setting up the motion sensors in the Philips Hue app, you’ll be able to program the lights for two timeslots: day and night. If you’d rather your motion sensor only be activated at night, you can program your lights to do nothing during the day. For each time slot, you can also program how long your lights will stay on after being triggered, ranging from one minute to an hour.

You can adjust the motion sensors’ daylight sensitivity — motion sensors can detect how much daylight there is in the room (or outside) and will not trigger the lights when there is sufficient daylight. But if you'd like your lights to be triggered when there is more or even less sunlight in the room, you can adjust the daylight sensitivity in the app.

The motion sensors also feature a motion sensitivity feature, where you can adjust just how much motion it takes for your sensor to be triggered — if your lights are being triggered too easily, you can lower the sensitivity. If it’s not detecting enough motion, raise the sensitivity.

While Hue motion sensors can be completely set up in the Philips Hue app, you can also use them with smart home assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomeKit. For example, you could set up your motion sensor so that when it detects movement, it turns on both your lights and triggers another smart home device, such as smart blinds, a TV, or speakers.

Philips Hue motion sensors have a battery life of minimum two years, but can sometimes last even longer based on how much they’re used. The Philips Hue app monitors the battery status of each motion sensor and notifies you when the sensor needs a new battery.