PresenceLight

Smart lights or, to be more precise, Wi-Fi-enabled lights are some of the most underrated pieces of technology to sprout during these last couple of years. They’re a great way to upgrade your home, they’re easy to use, and one could argue that they’re a must-have if you’re trying to build a “smart home.”

If you happen to already own one of these devices (Phillips Hue bulbs and LIFX light bulbs, in particular), then here’s a neat little app that you might find interesting.

It’s called PresenceLight and it allows you to broadcast various statuses to your smart light devices. If you’re a bit confused by this description, here’s what you can actually do with it: you can broadcast your Microsoft Teams availability statuses: Available, Busy, Do not Disturb, Be Right Back, and Appear Anyway, as well as your current Windows 10 theme (matching color scheme), and a theme or a color of your choosing.

Before anything, please note that this app requires Windows 10, version 1903, or higher. Once the app is installed on your computer, you should also enable something called “side-loading apps in Windows 10”. Upon first launching the app, you’ll be met by a message that requires you to login to your Microsoft account to sync the presence.

To connect the app to your Phillips Hue device, either obtain of your Phillips Hue Bridge (if you happen to know it), or ask the app to do it for you. Once the IP has been obtained, you will also need to register a developer account and get an API key by clicking the “register Bridge” button. Next, press the sync button on your Phillips Hue device and that should be about it.

Connecting your LIFX device should is similarly easy but, in this case, you’ll need to obtain a LIFX developer token. For more information, you can check out the app’s official Setup Guide.

While the setup process might be a bit cumbersome, once everything is set up and in order, the app is pretty user-friendly. Its GUI is not what one might call stylish or modern, but it gets the job done. There’s also a minimalistic Settings section from where you can change the Brightness level, the presence and theme polling interval, as well as the icon type, and that’s pretty much it.

To conclude, PresenceLight is an innovative and very interesting little app that brings a bit of extra functionality to your smart lighting system from home. While there’s little chance that this app will become extremely popular among Phillips Hue users, it might be a very good solution for people who work from home as they can now let anyone else in the establishment know that they are currently busy and potentially avoid unwanted interruptions.