Be aware that `emulated_hue` doesn't work for new **Google Home** users. If you're a new user of Google Home, use the [Google Assistant component](https://home-assistant.io/components/google_assistant/).
The `emulated_hue` component provides a virtual Philips Hue bridge, written entirely in software, which allows services that work with the Hue API to interact with Home Assistant entities. The driving use case behind for functionality is to allow Home Assistant to work with an Amazon Echo or Google Home with no setup cost outside of configuration changes. The virtual bridge can turn entities on/off or change the brightness of dimmable lights. The volume level of media players can be controlled as brightness.A physical Hue Bridge is required for Philips Hue lights to function - this virtual bridge will not replace a physical bridge. Instead, it allows Home Assistant to represent non-Philips Hue devices to Amazon Echo as Philips Hue devices, which Amazon Echo can control with built-in support.
It is recommended to assign a static IP address to the computer running Home Assistant. This is because the Amazon Echo discovers devices by IP addresses, and if the IP changes, the Echo won't be able to control it. This is easiest done from your router, see your router's manual for details.
Both Google Home and Alexa use the device they were initially set up with for communication with emulated_hue. In other words: if you remove/replace this device you will also break emulated_hue.
### {% linkable_title Configuration %} To enable the emulated Hue bridge, add one of the following configs to your `configuration.yaml` file: ```yaml # Google Home example configuration.yaml entry emulated_hue: listen_port: 80 # Google Home does not work on different ports. ``` ```yaml # Amazon Echo example configuration.yaml entry emulated_hue: ``` Configuration variables: - **type** (*Optional*): The type of assistant which we are emulating. Either `alexa` or `google_home`, defaults to `google_home`. **This configuration option is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. It is no longer necessary to define type.** - **host_ip** (*Optional*): The IP address that your Home Assistant installation is running on. If you do not specify this option, the component will attempt to determine the IP address on its own. - **listen_port** (*Optional*): The port the Hue bridge API web server will run on. If not specified, this defaults to 8300. This can be any free port on your system. - **advertise_ip** (*Optional*): If you need to override the IP address used for UPnP discovery. (For example, using network isolation in Docker) - **advertise_port** (*Optional*): If you need to specifically override the advertised UPnP port. - **upnp_bind_multicast** (*Optional*): Whether or not to bind the UPnP (SSDP) listener to the multicast address (239.255.255.250) or instead to the (unicast) host_ip address specified above (or automatically determined). The default is true, which will work for most situations. In special circumstances, like running in a FreeBSD or FreeNAS jail, you may need to disable this. - **off_maps_to_on_domains** (*Optional*): The domains that maps an "off" command to an "on" command. For example, if `script` is included in the list, and you ask Alexa to "turn off the *water plants* script," the command will be handled as if you asked her to turn on the script. If not specified, this defaults to the following list: - `script` - `scene` - **expose_by_default** (*Optional*): Whether or not entities should be exposed via the bridge by default instead of explicitly (see the 'emulated_hue' customization below). If not specified, this defaults to true. Warning: If you have a lot of devices (more than 49 total across all exposed domains), you should be careful with this option. Exposing more devices than Alexa supports can result in it not seeing any of them. If you are having trouble getting any devices to show up, try disabling this, and explicitly exposing just a few devices at a time to see if that fixes it. - **exposed_domains** (*Optional*): The domains that are exposed by default if `expose_by_default` is set to true. If not specified, this defaults to the following list: - `switch` - `light` - `group` - `input_boolean` - `media_player` - `fan` - **entities** (*Optional*): Customization for entities. A full configuration sample looks like the one below. ```yaml # Example configuration.yaml entry emulated_hue: host_ip: 192.168.1.186 listen_port: 8300 advertise_ip: 10.0.0.10 advertise_port: 8080 off_maps_to_on_domains: - script - scene expose_by_default: true exposed_domains: - light entities: light.bedroom_light: name: "Bedside Lamp" light.ceiling_lights: hidden: true ``` The following are attributes that can be applied in the `entities` section: - **name** (*Optional*): The name that the emulated Hue will use. The default for this is the entity's friendly name. - **hidden** (*Optional*): Whether or not the emulated Hue bridge should expose the entity. Adding `hidden: false` will expose the entity to Alexa. The default value for this attribute is controlled by the `expose_by_default` option.These attributes used to be found under the `customize` section of `homeassistant`, however, they have now been moved to `entities`. Emulated Hue configuration under `homeassistant.customize` will be deprecated in the near future.
### {% linkable_title Troubleshooting %} You can verify that the `emulated_hue` component has been loaded and is responding by pointing a local browser to the following URL: - `http://