$\"Philips$ <\/p>\n

Image: Ben Patterson\/Foundry<\/span>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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You\u2019ve already got me, Philips Hue. I\u2019ve coughed up hundreds for your smart bulbs and lighting fixtures, I use them day in and day out, and I\u2019m happy to discuss how good they are. But it drives me a little batty when I can\u2019t control your lights because of a giant pop-up ad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s happened a few times now in the past several weeks. I fire up the Philips Hue app to, say, dim the lights in my living room for a movie, and boom! I\u2019m hit with a screen-filling, button-blocking pop-up that reads, \u201cSale extended: Up to 40% off Bright Days for one more week!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well, good for you, Hue! But I\u2019m not shopping right now! I just want to turn my lights down! The ones I paid for!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, in the grand scheme of things, pop-up ads in smart home apps aren\u2019t that <\/em>big of a deal. And to be fair, Philips Hue isn\u2019t the only smart home manufacturer who\u2019s guilty of sticking banner ads in their apps. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Eufy, for example, has been taking grief in that brand\u2019s subreddit for pop-up overlays that appear over event videos<\/a>. Wyze also has a history of splashing banner ads over its app interface<\/a>. And plenty of other smart home manufacturers clutter their notification feeds with \u201cnews\u201d about discounts or new products.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve already gotten used to ads on our smart TVs and streaming players<\/a>, but that\u2019s a devil\u2019s bargain to an extent. If you want a 50-inch Roku TV for $250 or an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K for $30, you have to put up with a parade of ads in the user interface. Cheap smart TVs and streaming sticks wouldn\u2019t be cheap without all the ads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I suppose I was expecting more from Philips Hue, a premium smart home brand that makes (if you ask me) premium-quality products. Hue lights tend to be on the pricey side, but I\u2019m willing to pay extra because in my experience, Hue devices work well and reliably. <\/p>\n

For the relatively high price of admission, I was expecting to be left alone inside the Hue app. Instead, I\u2019m getting these annoying pop-ups that must be dismissed before I can get to my Hue controls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, most smart home manufacturers offer ways to disable the pop-ups, although there\u2019s much discussion about whether the settings actually work. On the Philips Hue app, for example, you can tap Settings > Privacy & messaging > Communication from Signify (the company that owns Philips Hue), then tap No. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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This feature is part of TechHive\u2019s in-depth coverage of the best smart lighting<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
But I\u2019m annoyed that I have to bother with that setting at all. Getting full-screen pop-up ads in a smart app like Philips Hue\u2019s is a bad user experience, full stop. Even if I did want to get alerts about Philips Hue discounts, there must be a better way than this.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tAuthor: Ben Patterson<\/a>, Senior Writer, TechHive\t\t<\/h3>\n
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Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he has covered everything from smart speakers and soundbars to smart lights and security cameras. Ben’s articles have also appeared in PC Magazine, TIME, Wired, CNET, Men’s Fitness, Mobile Magazine, and more. Ben holds a master’s degree in English literature.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Qiana Kucera
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Image: Ben Patterson\/Foundry You\u2019ve already got me, Philips Hue. I\u2019ve coughed up hundreds for your smart bulbs and lighting fixtures, I use them day in and day out, and I\u2019m happy to discuss how good they are. But it drives me a little batty when I can\u2019t control your lights because of a giant pop-up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":857414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29548,4876],"tags":[46451,10163],"class_list":{"0":"post-857413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philips","8":"category-wanted","9":"tag-philips","10":"tag-wanted"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}