Philips Hue’s SpatialAware Could Finally Make Smart Lighting Feel Like a Pro’s Touch

It turns out I’ve been using my Hue lights all wrong — and a dining room demo at CES made me rethink smart lighting forever.

Philips Hue’s SpatialAware uses smartphone augmented reality to map room layouts and light placements, then remasters lighting scenes to distribute colors based on physical positioning.

For example, a Savannah sunset scene now applies warm yellows to one wall while balancing dark tones on the opposite side, avoiding the flat, uniform lighting of previous versions. The Nightlight scene has been redesigned to turn off ceiling lights entirely, reducing over-illumination in low-light settings.

“That’s because it’s actually being done the way the lighting designer intended,” says George Yianni, CTO and founder of Philips Hue. The feature will arrive in Spring 2026 for systems using the Hue Bridge Pro, with 50% of existing scenes being reworked for compatibility.

A CES 2026 demo highlighted the difference between original and remastered scenes — the former looked uneven and artificial, while the latter achieved a polished, cinematic quality.