Previously it was possible to set a duration when turning on and off lights in a Philips Hue group:
I have a few older flows where this still works as expected but it’s not possible for me to configure this setting for new flows. Has this (very useful) feature been removed or where can’t I find it?
As far as I can tell it has been gone for quite some time, more than a year. Not sure why, maybe someone else can let us know. I have not found a reliable way to recreate this, I’ve tried chronograph app and a few others and the result is inconsistent and certainly not as good as the Hue app. What I have done is create scenes in the Hue phone app with specific names and work between scene activations. The scenes might be the same lights but at 10% “Living Room Spots 10%”, then “Living Room Spots 20%” etc
But I don’t think it’s possible to switch between scenes using a duration? I would like the lights to dim slowly instead of near instantly.
That’s how it used to be. But the option isn’t available anymore:
and using Advanced Flow:
Are you on the latest version of the Hue app?
Sorry about all the spam but:
Don’t use Philips Hue devices with the bridge, but you can try to check the test version of the Philips Hue app, because this version is updated to support Hue API v2:
It isn’t in that it doesn’t replicate the function we used to have, you can have a delay between scene activations. Personally I don’t bother. I have scenes that come on at times specified using the Sun Events app and then alterations to those maybe twice over the course an hour
Also doesn’t work, I’ve just looked at individual Hue lamps and the card for setting over a period time isn’t there anymore. That’s via Hue bridge and not without bridge. Have tried using Homey to control 115 lamps and there end up being random ones left out whereas via a Hue bridge and scenes the result, for me at least, has been far more reliable
Interesting, didn’t know about this
What’s disappointing is that it used to be possible to use that card with a scene. I’ll be having a look at the beta version in a bit. Batch cooking currently. Sent Homey a diagnostic for the Bosch app, hasn’t worked in more than a month. I have flows that flash Hue lights different colours when the oven/dishwasher/micro program is finished and those flows haven’t worked in ages (sorry, off topic)
Yes, I would like to dim the whole group at once instead of the lights individually - much better experience.
Fortunately I have multiple flows where the duration property is available. Duplicating those flows seems to work as expected - so I can create small flows simply dimming the lights with a duration. Not the best developer experience - but it works.
The funny thing is, the application understands and uses the property correctly but it doesn’t expose the property to the user interface 
My current solution:
I’ve created the following HomeyScript for dimming the groups using a duration.
if (typeof args[0] !== 'string') {
throw new Error('This script must be run from a Flow!');
}
var argsObj = JSON.parse(args[0]);
const groupName = argsObj.groupName;
const brightness = argsObj.brightness;
const duration = argsObj.duration;
// The follow array can be generated this way: Create a the 'Turn all lights on in <group>' flow card
// and insert the network response here
const allGroups = [
{
"id": 0,
"bridge_id": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
"name": "The name of a room",
"description": "The name of the bridge"
},
...
];
const currentGroups = allGroups.filter(g => g.name === groupName);
for (var groupIndex in currentGroups) {
let currentGroup = currentGroups[groupIndex];
await Homey.flow.runFlowCardAction(
{
uri: 'homey:app:nl.philips.hue',
id: 'homey:app:nl.philips.hue:groupSetBrightness',
args: {
group: {
id: currentGroup.id,
bridge_id: currentGroup.bridge_id,
},
brightness: brightness
},
duration: duration
});
}
I’m then calling the script from my flows, where I can even provide the duration using a variable (which isn’t possible using the Hue flow card directly):
