Hello. One more vote for this!
I want to turn on a light from a dimmer Switch and have that light turn off automatically after a set time. During this time the Dimmer Switch should work normally, ie I should be able to dim down or up the lights and the timer countdown shouldn’t be affected by this.
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Hi, I’m interrested too by this feature 
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I have 2 sensors (using Hue Labs Couple Sensor) that trigger lights to go on after movement. After 2 minutes lights are turned off. All fine…but I would like to press a switch button that will temporary disable the sensors and put the lights for an x-amount of minutes on a different scene.
Reason; sometimes I do some work sitting still at my desk so sensors wouldn’t see movement. To avoid leaving on the lights I want the previous mode (sensor controls the lights) to be active again after f.e. 15 or 20 minutes. So different case, but same need for a timer!
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I do see a pattern here on the forum; many wishes, lots of adding to a wishlist by Hue Essential but very little outcome in terms of implementations.
Curious to hear what effect you had in mind here and how to set it up? How does this effect work exactly? Might have useful scenarios for it.
Also interested about this.
Planning to use car heating with this.
Slow to set it up from a phone… 
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One more from me:
Have a light in the guest toilet that my children always forget to switch off. So a “timed on” for maybe 30 min would be the solution.
And no: Installing a damn button is not the solution.
Can’t be too hard to program:
If switch changes status
Trigger counter
When counter ends do sth.
Probably every student can do this in a few minutes…
Is there any alternative SW that can do the trick right now?
Functionality in the Hue ecosystem lacks basic features (would be better if there were less mood settings and other crap and more basic functionality in development).
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Any news? I’d like to be able to do the same and turn an extractor fan off after a set amount of time.
If I just join the fan to the lights, she would just leave the lights and the fan on and walk away, leaving it on for hours.
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Any news for this request?
I came for this too for the stair problem, but even this added to a wishlist 2 years ago, there is no info or anything from the developer. It’s sad.
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Thanks everyone for the feedback. I am working on a solution for this which I expect to have ready within a few weeks.
A new feature called Automation will be added. There you will be able to configure delays between actions.
An automation can be started from a switch using a new action that will be added called “Start automation”. First create an automation in the automations tab at the bottom. As event use the “External” event. After saving the automation you can start it from a switch using the “Start automation” action.
In another future update the switch configuration will be replaced with the automation configuration once all features are available there. So then you can add wait actions directly on the switches.
All of the automation configuration is saved on the bridge, just like the switches.
The new update will be version 1.29.0 on Android and 1.21.0 on iOS.
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This is very cool news, and very timely as I was only just investigating options as I couldn’t find anything suitable in the Hue or Hue Essentials app yet.
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I tried setting up this auto off timer automation and successfully set it up, but it doesn’t appear you can associate an automation with the hue button. Is that correct or can someone point me to instructions on how to do this? I’m trying to just achieve a simple auto off timer for my espresso machine that I would turn on using a hue button associated with a hue plug. Here is a video of a competing Belkin Wemo solution that does exactly that. Tested: WiFi Timer Switch for Espresso Machines - YouTube
I would think hue as a leading competitor in this space would have a similar solution?
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@Sam Thanks for the feedback, this is something that will be improved soon. For now create an automation on the “Automation” tab. and use “External” as event, add actions, and save the automation. After that go to your smart control on the “Devices” tab and add the “Start automation” action selecting the automation you created earlier.
(note that this is only supported on Android/iOS at the moment, the Windows version is still missing the functionality to configure smart controls)
Please let me know if you have any questions. Very interested in feedback.
By the way, the following topic contains some information about the new automations: Automation in Hue Essentials
Thanks for your reply @Thomas, but these instructions don’t seem to be right. When I’m on the automations tab in the latest hue essentials iOS app version 4.17.0, the only thing I see is “wake up with light”, “coming home”, “leaving home”, timer” or “custom”, for the types of automations I can create. I tried both timer and custom, and neither of these have the ability to add an external event. They only allow you to add specific devices. And there is no “devices” tab at all in the app. Can you please provide specific instructions for the current version of the iOS app? Or is this auto off functionality that I see for Wemo outlets in this video not an option in hue? https://youtu.be/IzPqeXpQzHw
It looks like you are using the official Hue app. This community is about the Hue Essentials app. Hue Essentials is a third party app for Philips Hue lights which you can download from the App Store.
The new automations feature has not been released yet for all users, it will be available soon. If you want you can help test the feature by joining the beta program here: Join the beta - Try new features before they are officially released. Of course feedback on the new feature would be appreciated.
Hello, if i try to select “extern” o become an error:
Without select a trigger i cant safe the automation.
That’s not an error. Just tap Fertig and the event is added. After saving you can add the automation to a switch.