Quick Access Device Controls (Android 11)

Android Quick Access Device Controls allows you to control lights, groups, scenes, effects, and more.

Before adding the device controls, make sure you have Hue Essentials installed and have at least one smart device paired to the app. Android 11 or higher is required.

See the following how to add the device controls:

Google (Pixel)

  1. Long press the power button
  2. Tap the three dots
  3. Tap See other apps
  4. Tap Hue Essentials
  5. Select the device controls you would like to add
  6. Tap Save

If you are not able to add the device controls, open the Settings app, tap System, tap Gestures, tap Power menu, and make sure the device controls are enabled.

To be able to use the device controls when your device is locked, open the Settings app, tap System, tap Gestures, tap Power menu, and make sure Sensitive content is enabled.

Samsung

One UI 3.1 is required for the device controls.

  1. Swipe down from the top-right of your screen
  2. Tap the Devices button
  3. Tap the three dots
  4. Tap Manage apps
  5. Tap Hue Essentials
  6. Select the device controls you would like to add
  7. Go back to the previous screen using the back button
  8. Swipe down from the top of your screen again
  9. Tap the SmartThings dropdown
  10. Select Hue Essentials

If you are not able to add the device controls, open the Settings app, search for “device controls”, and make sure the device controls are enabled.

To be able to use the device controls when your device is locked, swipe down from the top of your screen, tap the Devices button, tap Settings, and enable the option Use while phone is locked.

Xiaomi

  1. Open the Settings app
  2. Tap Notifications & Control center
  3. Make sure Control center style is set to New version
  4. Select Hue Essentials from the Smart home dropdown
  5. Swipe down from the top of your screen
  6. Tap the edit button at the bottom
  7. Select the device controls you would like to add
  8. Tap Done
  9. (optional) To be able to use the device controls when your device is locked, tap Items shown on the Lock screen after swiping down, and enable Smart home

Due to how the Xiaomi controls are implemented at this time, they can be difficult to configure if you have many devices and scenes.

Other

If your phone manufacturer is not listed above, please try the following:

  • Try the instructions above for other manufacturers
  • Long press the power button and see if device controls are visible
  • Swipe down from the top of your screen and see if device controls are visible
  • Open the Settings app and search for “device controls”
2 Likes

So Android 11 has launched with a new “Device Control” feature: Android 11: Here's what's new with the power menu and device controls | Android Central

I have searched all over and for the life of me couldn’t figure out how it’s actually supposed to work.

It appears that this is a backend functionality which app developers can tie into: Control external devices  |  Android Developers

If this is correct, is it possible for Hue Essentials to bring the Quick Tiles functionality to this as well? It would be very convenient to have this at the press of a power button instead of the quick action drop-down now that Google has gimped the quick action buttons to only 2 rows instead of 3 that it used to be.

I’d happily pay for this as an addon much like the Quick Tiles.

Thanks!!!

1 Like

Looks cool! We will see what we can do for you.

1 Like

woohoo thanks! would be amazing if it’s feasible. looking at the toggle types this might be able to open up more modes of interaction than quick actions, not just simple stuff like on/off or scene recall but actual slider control for lights/rooms too maybe. depends on how sophisticated the API is i suppose…

1 Like

I’d love this, especially having control of groups or scenes. I don’t know if that’s possible with the API though. Would be more than happy if this was a paid feature too. Keep up the awesome work! My only hue app!

1 Like

Any update on this? I saw other apps and service started to support the power menu access.

To activate scenes and lights by my power menu started my interested to look for smart home gadgets and brought me to this side.

1 Like

Hello everyone, I have been working on the device controls for Android 11. See the screenshots below for how it looks like. Currently you can add groups, lights, scenes, and effects. Let me know if you have any feedback. I hope to release this as a beta version in the next few weeks.

3 Likes

Amazing! The quick access to scenes and switches - without going to an app or even home screen- in Power Menu is for me the major reason why I started to use smart home lights.
Just registered for Beta. Now Oneplus has to hurry up to upgrade my device to android 11.

1 Like

(i forgot my old password)

wow! that was implemented very quickly. I’ll have to try it out before i can give proper feedback but it looks extremely good from the screenshots!

I assume groups and lights are ones that you can adjust brightness with and scenes are more of a one-click trigger type thing.

Hey Thomas, I just got the recent update with the Android Device Controls. It’s great but I noticed that the “Add” screen on that also has the same issue: it only shows rooms and lights etc. that are associated with a room, but not ones that do not have a room associated.

I’d also make an improvement suggestion: right now when the power button screen is opened when there’s no connection to the bridge, after trying to load for a while the device controls seem to show the last detected status of the lights. so for example it’ll show the lights as on if the last time it connected the light was on. it should instead show that it’s not connected.

Thanks!

Android 11 device controls are now available in Hue Essentials 1.17.0. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Hello,
When I’m trying to use the device control tiles in the android 11 power menu, I discoverd some problems for me:

  • when I press or slide to change a group or a single bulb, it works but the tile does not update at all. Only leaving the power menu and getting in again updates the used tile.
  • there are no scenes I could add as a tile to the menu, only groups and single bulbs. But in the widget And of course the app itself I can used programmed scenes.

I use an oneplus Nord with the recently released android 11 update. Furthermore I use a ikea tradfri bridge and ikea smart bulbs only. Could this be a problem for using the device control menu?!

Screenshot_20210301-091658|225x500

Is it possible to set motion sensor on/off to the quick access?

At the moment it is not possible to toggle a motion sensor from the Android device controls. However, that will be added in the next update of the app (version 1.20.0)

1 Like

I didn’t even know I was able to select something else than shitty Smartthings…So I just looked, but…no Essentials? Only Google Home (or Smartthings).
I own a Samsung Note 10+, all updated.
What to do?

You need to tap the three dots and tap Manage apps. Also please check if you have One UI 3.1 installed. See the following instructions: Quick Access Device Controls (Android 11)

1 Like

Thank you Thomas, “Manage apps” will do the trick.

1 Like

You can now toggle motion sensors (and other smart controls) from the device controls. Let me know what you think about it.

1 Like

Really nice.
Is it possible to show the temperature history of a motion sensor somehow, or is it just in time?

Great to hear! Historical data is not available on a Hue bridge so there is not much I can do about that at this time.

1 Like