This little device is a game changer for controlling my Philips Hue Smart Lights

I love all the Philips Hue smart lights I use in my home. I’m not crazy about having different ways to control them: from my smartphone, smart speaker, or screen. If you really want to up your Hue game, forget all these options: I’ve discovered the best way to control my smart bulbs.

I can now find other brands of smart bulbs – and at much lower prices – but Philips Hue is perhaps the best known, offering a solid range of indoor and outdoor smart lighting. Whether I want my lighting to be hidden away or whether I am looking for unique lamps that are designed to be displayedHue has them.

It’s not just about the lights. The Hue line also has a wide range of accessories. For me the best is the Philips Hue Tap dial. Available in black or white with a $50 price tag, the Tap Dial is a small puck-shaped light controller that you can press and turn, giving it a “smart analog” vibe.

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On the surface, the Tap Dial is a simple but expensive way to control your lighting

Spending $50 on a glorified light switch may seem like a bit much, especially considering it’s almost the same price as a single light switch Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance lamp of 75 watts. If you’re like me and are firmly steeped in the Hue ecosystem, you’ve probably already come to terms with the fact that it’s an expensive ecosystem to operate in. The customization options for this little guy will excite crafters, and I believe it is well worth the price.

The watch face itself looks like a hockey puck with four buttons on the front, with a rotating outer wheel to brighten or darken your lights. The four buttons each have small dots numbered from 1 to 4, so that you can feel which button you press, even in the dark. It’s quite small and it’s not a chore to take it from room to room if you want. You can place it on the wall in the included wall bracket and use it as a typical light switch. It’s magnetic, so you can stick it to your refrigerator or any other metal surface.

Under the hood, the Tap Dial’s customization options are enormous

You might think that installing this little device would be easy, with just a few options, but you’d be wrong. The Tap Dial settings can be a bit complicated and may take some tinkering to get just right, especially if you have multiple scenes you want to cycle through.

Either I missed the feature in the app completely, or within the almost two years I’ve had the watch face, Philips has solved my biggest problem. I’m not sure what’s true, but my biggest pet peeve was thinking you could only use the Tap Dial for one room or “zone” in your house. Again, while this was always the way the device functioned, this has now (in my opinion) been resolved and you can assign each button to a different room or zone in your house. The twist-to-dim function can only be assigned to one room at a time, which makes sense.

To set this up, go to the Hue app and then go to Institutions > Accessories and select your Tap Dial. From there you can assign functions to each of the buttons. First you must choose whether the button will control your lighting or automation. If you choose the former, you’ll need to choose the button behavior when you press it:

• Time-based light: Lighting based on the time of day or based on a custom time schedule of your choice.
• Scene cycle: Choose a primary scene that always starts when you press a button. Keep pressing to cycle through additional light scenes.
• Single scene: Always only the same scene when pressing the button.
• Lights out: Selected lights turn off when the button is pressed.

By default, pressing and holding any of the buttons turns off the lights assigned to it, but you can choose to turn off all the lights in your entire home or do nothing. There’s also an advanced ‘smart on/off’ option, which I haven’t worked with yet.

Once you’ve adjusted the buttons to your liking, your last stop is to choose what the dial does – or what else it does besides brighten or dim your lights. There are only two options here, and both are easy to customize. The first is choosing whether you want to turn your lights off completely with the dial, or if you only want them to go to minimum brightness when you turn to dim them. The second gives you the option to set a specific scene that turns on when you turn the dial while the lights are off.

You can make your installation as simple or complex as you want, making the Tap Dial accessible to everyone.

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The Hue Tap Dial makes a great gift

Chances are, someone won’t run out and drop a ton of money on Hue bulbs after receiving this as a gift. The Tap Dial is easy to use, but the value it brings comes down to the adjustments you can make with it. Still, you don’t have to want to jump into all the settings to make the Dial worth it. As I said above, it is an accessible device for everyone because you can make it as simple or as complex as you want.

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If you know someone who already has a Hue installation at home, this is a nice addition. And if they like to delve into settings or are self-proclaimed tinkerers, then this is definitely worth considering. If you’re not sure if someone has Hue bulbs, the Tap Dial is an even better gift in combination with a new bulb.

Hungry for more? Don’t miss this video overview of the best Philips Hue Lights, which shows off the Tap Dial so you can see it in action.