Philips Hue: Just Kidding About Blocking Third-Party Bulbs

You win, internet. Following user backlash, Philips has decided not to block third-party bulbs from working with its Hue smart lighting platform after all.

The reversal comes after Philips earlier this week announced plans to nix support for bulbs that were not certified by its Friends of Hue program. As you can expect, users were not thrilled with the decision, especially since Philips products are way pricier than competitors' options, as PCMag's sister site ExtremeTech pointed out.

"We under estimated the impact this would have on a small number of customers who use lights from other brands which could not be controlled by the Philips Hue software," the company said in a statement. "We have decided to continue to enable our customers who wish to integrate these uncertified products within their Philips Hue system."

Philips is currently finalizing a second software upgrade that will reverse the block and allow other brands to work with the Hue system, as they did before. The company warned, however, that uncertified lights "may continue to have the same incompatibility issues as before, such as lights not dimming to off, creating the right colors or scene experience."

Once the new update is ready, customers will be prompted to install the new firmware via the Philips Hue app.

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Meanwhile, the Apple HomeKit-enabled Philips Hue Bridge 2.0 ( at Amazon)  recently nabbed an "excellent" rating in PCMag's review, garnering praise for its simple setup and ability to connect up to 50 bulbs. We did, however, note that Hue bulbs are expensive and lack voice control for Android users.