Thorlight for Philips Hue Reviews

by JustinOmaha

If you buy a “package” wait a very, very long time for new effects to be added. I bought every package that they offer to support the developer well over a year ago and this is the first update. What’s upsetting is the updates are not equal per channel. So if you didn’t buy the right package, upgrades are worthless to you. I spent a decent amount of money on Thorlight buying every package, and have been left with the same un-customizable effects from day one. Even worse? Upgraded and now certain levels are no longer “unlocked” that I already paid for. But at least they added an effect (ruby) that is a steady red color (none of my guests can notice the difference). Maybe was Thorlight , but sadly they’ve obviously given up.

by Mikel27

Sort of allows for endless options for however you wish to setup your lights separately or together but the effects don't last long. With Thorlight open my lights were as I set them but once Thorlight is exited or my phone screen is shut off, the lights don't function properly after a short time. Closing Thorlight disables any sequences or changing scenes you may have set. For example - I have red and blue lights that alternate 3 seconds on/off. Once Thorlight is exited, the lights stay fixed on blue or red and do not alternate. Also, it keeps stating you can only have 3 effects at once - **click to terminate all effects** - click to apply effect previously attempting and the message appears again. Seems like the scenes/lights/effects don't change every click. Sometimes the lights won't adjust properly to your wants/needs without shutting the light off and clearing everything. There are easier apps to use.

by Jeff's Ears

I like Thorlight but some of the animations work well and others don’t seem to work well. For example the party - where? The lights start out with an excellent sequence of repeating loops, then all the lights turn bright red and just stay like that. If I go to the brightness slider and change the brightness to something lower it works again for about 10 seconds and returns to a locked brightness with no animations. Sometimes it is all red and stuck like that and other times it is a blue background with a red one chasing itself. Very cool when it works! Other animations exhibit this same strange brightness lock behaviour, ruby for one. This might be related to animations that use red?

by Mothercatmatt

Great app; however, i have bought all the extensions on Thorlight and still have many problems with it. A lot of the animations just cause your lights to get dimmer and dimmer until they sto. And sometimes, i turn my loghts on and Thorlight automatically controlls them until i close Thorlight (without me telling it to). Good to play around with, but i would NOT recommend spending extra to unlock the animations. Many of them don’t work or just work for a few minutes.

by CollinsFamily1987

I want to love Thorlight, but I always get the “start iPhone application” message on my Apple Watch (series 3) when I try to use it on the watch even when the application is definitely open. The watch interface is great when it works and is the main reason I downloaded Thorlight, but I just constantly have to install and reinstall and force quit in all different patterns to ever get it to work. And when I finally get it working it’s broken again the next day anyway! Very frustrating.

by Davemanley

Awesome app however at some point 6 months of so ago the light strips “flash” when they change colors. It seems like they go through the color spectrum as the colors change, the “flash” effect is when the strip passes through the whites. If the developer can patch this so we only see the end result color (not the actual change) it will be back to 5 stars.

by Stwatkins

Thorlight gives the most flexibility I’ve seen when it comes to synchronizing the hue lights throughout the house. It’s got lots of options even without the add-on packs. Adding those puts not only much more functionality at your fingertips but also more complexity. This would be fine except for the fact that the myriad of options aren’t described well at all, there’s no comprehensive FAQ, the questions I’ve seen in the reviews are some of the same I have & don’t know why this sharing it knowledge is kept between a one on one with the customer & developer. Posting the resolutions online would save time & frustration leading to more effective use and quicker set up. Thorlight itself is great. Just teach people how to use it ! Only take 2-3 pages of how to. Thanks

by Kcarangelo

It's an awesome App! As others have said, there is a learning curve, but that's OK. It's really the interface that is not especially intuitive. But plenty of options and plenty of things to play with. Much, much better than the standard Hue app. It reacts really fast with multiple lights. I've got 23 grouped so far. It's quite the light show. Definitely a worthwhile purchase.

by Master Of The O

It is an awesome app however I can't get it to pick up my bulb or bridge I found the light fir 7$ in clearance isle at Walmart thinking I just need an app then found out I need a bridge well after being agervayyed I couldn't get justvs bridge at Walmart I went ti lowes I ended up eith a osram Lightify bridge that lets me change the color on off saturation brightness on there but nothing else where do I find or can I make this bridge. Compatible on Thorlight typing in the ip manually?

by Haven't Tried Looks Cool😝😜

Ok so I’ve been using Thorlight for a long time. Maybe a year or two. It works VERY well and can really set a mood to a party or room. Lately though it has not been allowing me to get into Thorlight . Every time I try to get in it kicks me out. But it only does this if it’s connected to the lights. I really hope you can fix this. I’ve tried restarting Thorlight , my phone, I even deleted Thorlight and downloaded it again. I use an iPhone 5s and I hope you can fix this.

by DeanStan

Thorlight is unbelievable. It has brought my hue color lights to life! It is absolutely fascinating what Thorlight can do with lights. I have six canned lights in my living room along with two entry lamps and one table lamp all within the same room. So there are total of nine lights and Thorlight has a field day with all of them in a great kind of way. The lightning/thunderstorm animation is my favorite and works flawlessly. Cannot wait to show my little nieces and nephews the lightning inside my house. The strobe lights in the party animation are also very cool.

by Sinewygbm

Love Thorlight! I have all three brands light supported. It does take a while to set up, but once it was done, all of the lights work together seamlessly, harmonizing individually, according to the selected scene. It’s the only app I found which can control all of my lights as promised. It’s one of the few app purchases I don’t regret making. Highly recommend.

by Selibucaz

If you for any reason get rid of your old bridge/hub Thorlight will crash looking for your old hue bridge/hub (did for me at least). The fix for that I found was to put the phone in airplane mode. Great app. Even with frustration of troubleshooting I view it as the best app for controlling hue lights that I’ve tried so far, given the strobe effects and whatnot.

by Cloinblo

Thorlight will take a little bit to setup and test(20 mins tops). Their banding feature paired with some of the animations gives effects 10 times better than any music sync app out there. Hopefully the developer will add more band specific animations, or a way to customize colors on purchased ones. Easily one of the best free custom apps out there.

by Scwinsett

I’ve been using a lot of third party Hue apps over the past year, and this app is quite easily the best and most thoughtful. It’s the only lighting app I’ve found that allows you to configure your lighting space physically to create fully ambient atmospheres that are just really perfect for changing the entire mood of your home.

I think the setup process could use a bit of simplification, because it took me quite a bit to fully understand the way it works, and I would like to see more animated scenes, but overall, Thorlight is unmatched in quality.

by CCTWB

The main "normal" work flawlessly. But I bought one additional add on under animation "sky". It worked pretty good for about a month but now it says "I have reached the maximum....boa boa... and it won't let me use it. It was a one time purchase not a limited number of uses. Pretty dissatisfied withy that. But the normal section works pretty well.

Thanks for response to my review, but... terminating all concurrent does not work. I get the warning saying I can only have 3 run and a choice to terminate. I select terminate all events and absolutely nothing happens. I try to run the clear sky animation again and I get the same warning and nothing happens. Can you walk me thru the steps to reset and how to properly use animations?

Thank you yet again, but the option you provided worked only once. I've used nearly every option of "stopping" I can come up with. Included, selecting all lights, then swipe screen left, and hitting "stop" and then again , hitting "turn off and stop". Then try starting a sunny animation or moonlight animation and I get that same message. I repeat the stop process and nada. Maybe your update will be the fix. Maybe I delete and re download and start again. Right now I am going to use another app. Thank you for getting back to me. That means more to me then the bug.

Update- with feedback from developer and instruction I have no issues with Thorlight . It works perfectly as advertised.

by BadDomino5

Great hue app. Probably the best. One suggestion I would offer is probably not possible. I have really slow wifi at home. My unlimited 4G connection is wadi better. It is an annoyance to have to switch off my phone's wifi to use the web, but have to reconnect any time I wanna change the lights, or have the animations continue. Would be nice if you could access the network adapters on a better level. Like instead of saying "use default system network" have it pick the wireless network.

EDIT: Thorlight is still awesome, but I can't help but feel like we need some new animated themes.

by TiffanyBlue_805

this app is an awesome app! I've been using it for over a year now and I love it...it's definitely one of my top 3.
It's got the best features out there, and on top of that - it's free! There are extras available for purchase as well, and I enjoy each one I've chosen.
Something impressive & unique about this app is the fact you can PREVIEW the themes you're interested in buying prior to making your purchase! This way, you can be sure your lights will look & perform as you imagined & your money will not be wasted.
You can also upload your own photos to create color themes, scenes & animations; choose colors, groups, or rooms individually; build your own dynamic themes using your favorite photos; set the timing & sequence of color changes...I'm pretty sure it does anything imaginable with Hue.
I'm always excited when I find new things Thorlight can do!
Another thing that sets this app above the rest is the fact they provide fun new lighting themes every now & then and they keep Thorlight functional, updated, and running smoothly at all times.
You will not be disappointed! Get Thorlight & Have some fun!

by Oakandsage

I have to be honest - I don’t use Thorlight as often as others simply because I find the dynamic effects TOO fun to watch. I like them too much to get anything else done when they are running, I’m captivated by the patterns of the light.

The setup is somewhat complex but it is worth it! There is nothing else like it out there.

by Tyethough

I spent $10 for 2 animation packs and it was definitely worth it, I get the most out of my hue lights for sure!

Unlike some hue apps that are great, this one doesn’t require subscriptions like DJLight’s 7/month! Once you buy a package you can always use that package.

This doesn’t sync up to your music like Hue App Sync but it has really great customizable light show animations!! In my opinion syncing the music isn’t any better than the light shows offered here... Hue App Sync hardly ever works the right way and always dims the lights too dark for a party

by Kris Kastor

this app is like the toddler who sits in class drawing full-bodied caricatures of his classmates, who scrawl random stick figures nobody wants. Most of the other apps apparently assume we purchase neat pricey colored lights like preteengirls looking for anything sparkley and colorful, but this app allows for pre-engineered wardrobes of careful cohesive scenescapes that animate is in a big-picture harmonic way, and can breakdown focal groups similar but better than the ‘zones’ feature Hue native app finally released (still beta for whatever weenie reason)... Thor Rocks!