Philips Hue appears ready to expand its line of home security devices, with clues to the manufacturer’s plans hidden within its own app.
The leak details an unannounced product that would round out Hue’s existing catalog of security cameras, floodlights, and motion and contact sensors: a video doorbell, which would mark a logical next step in terms of brand’s smart security lineup.
As HueBlog.com reports, intel about the purported doorbell was discovered by a reader doing a deep dive into the Philips Hue app. Details about the device remain sketchy, but we can be reasonably sure it’s in the pipeline.
For starters, it appears the doorbell offers both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, with the former designed to aid discovery during setup. Scanning a QR code may also figure in the setup process, Hueblog.com notes.
Another clue about the potential Philips Hue doorbell comes from an LED troubleshooting screen with a caption that reads, “Your doorbell may not be connected to power. Make sure it’s properly wired in,” suggesting that the device will depend on wired power rather than a battery.
The leak doesn’t provide other key details, including the video resolution of the doorbell’s camera, whether it offers motion sensing or AI-powered object recognition, support for motion or privacy zones, or other common video doorbell features.
When might the Philips Hue video doorbell arrive? Good question. In recent years, Hue has saved its biggest product announcements for the fall IFA technology conference in Berlin, so it seems reasonable that the doorbell might make its appearance then.
We’ve reached out to Philips Hue for more details.
Philips Hue first made the leap to home security products back in August 2023, where it unveiled a suite of three security cameras—including a wired camera, a battery-powered cam, and a spotlight—along with a contact sensor.
The Hue cameras all top out at 1080p resolution, and they also offer such features as motion sensing, on-device, AI-powered person, pet, vehicle, and package detection, plus end-to-end encryption.
Controlling the cams is the security center in the Hue app, which lets users view video feeds and recordings, arm or disarm the Hue security system, receive motion alerts, or “take action,” including calling 9-1-1 or triggering “light alarms” intended to spook intruders or alert neighbors to a disturbance.
As with Ring and other home security brands, Philips offers a paid subscription plan for those looking to store recorded videos in the cloud, with the Hue Secure Basic plan giving a single camera 30 days of storage for $3.99 a month or $39.99 a year. The Hue Secure Plus plan will handle all your Hue cameras for $9.99 a month or $99.99/year, while upping the video storage to 60 days.