Switch on lights from (Google) Calendar event with specific title/description

Automation
1

Hello.

I will have in my hands tomorrow 1 Hue Bridge 2, 5 White Ambience Bluetooth Lights, and 3 Dimmer Switches.

I am currently looking into 3rd party apps for Android, and Hue Essentials has hit my shortlist. (The others being All4Hue and HueDynamic).

Please note I am well aware that answers will be biased towards Hue Essentials as this is your forum, I am therefore not asking for direct comparisons. I am merely lettig you know what I am looking at. I have emailed HueDynamic, and there appears to be no contact at all for All4Hue.

Whilst all 3 apps have many complex features, I only require a few basic features - but that aren’t available in the default app. From my research, only these 3 apps allow the full programming of the Dimmers.

One thing I can’t find though, is any information on calendar integration.

I work shifts, and EVERY shift is unique. My start time can vary by minutes or hours from day to day. I currently use an app (that is no longer available to download, so how long it will continue to work I do not know) called AlarmPad.

This app scrapes the Title and Description fields of all my calendar entries for specific hashtags. It then sets alarms based on rules specific to that hashtag.

Is there any sort of similar functionality whereby I can link my Google Calendar, and with the use of a hashtag or similar, have certain lights automatically turn on for a set period of time?

Many thanks.

2

Hello Jonathan, thanks for your message. Sorry for the delay, there are lots of support questions at the end of the year.

What I understand is that you want to switch on your lights on a calendar event.

It is not possible to link Google Calendar to Hue Essentials at the moment. I added that to the wish list for future development, it seems very interesting.

What you could do instead is use Tasker for this. I am sure that there are Tasker plugins that can trigger tasks on a (Google) calendar event. Hue Essentials has a Tasker plugin to control your lights, so as task action you can use Hue Essentials to switch on a light. See for more information: How do I use Tasker?

Tasker will run on your phone, so your phone needs to be on in order for Tasker to work. If you sign in with Away from Home in Hue Essentials, the tasks will also work when not connected to your local WiFi.

Let me know if you have any questions.