Timers Added
Philips Hue updated their iOS application today to bring a great new feature but seemingly incomplete feature. Timers, which are now baked right in to the Philips Hue application, allows for the user to set a timer within the application that will have selected rooms blink once the countdown reaches zero. Once you create a timer it is saved in the timer section under the routines tab so that it can be used again as needed in the future. This is especially useful for baking/cooking. Once set it allows you to get back to the more important things in life and not worry about burning dinner.
This marks the first time that Philips Hue has baked in an automation to blink lights and hopefully will not be the last time. Noticeably missing are abilities to blink the lights on a daily scheduled, as well as the ability to blink the lights a specific color. Both of which would be beneficial for reoccurring notifications. Sadly, to be able to have certain colors blink to remind you of something specific, you will still need to rely on third party applications like IFTTT.
Current Limitations
No ability to select a specific color you want the lights to blink
No ability to incorporate this with a daily schedule
You can only set timers based to minutes and hours (no seconds available)
You can only select rooms to be blinked not specific lights
If your light-strips are already on they will not blink (at the time of testing)
No timer support for widgets within iOS/Apple Watch
