Earlier this morning, the official Philips Hue app listing was briefly taken down from the Google Play Store. Whatever the issue may have been, it has since been resolved, and the app is back up and available on Google's servers. That's good because Philips doesn't allow re-uploads of the app on alternate download sites like APK Mirror, so customers of the company's expensive lighting systems which needed to download the app during its disappearance were out of luck — you can't get it anywhere else.

There was no indication that the broader Hue smart home system had any kind of issue during the app's short disappearance, which lasted for at least a few hours. There was no outcry from millions of users, and the iOS app is was available on the App Store during the disappearance. Other Philips-branded apps from the same publisher, including Hue Bluetooth and Hue Sync, were not removed from Google's repository.

Hue recently had a major app redesign, streamlining its lighting controls and adding new behavior options. That left us wondering if a critical bug or security issue created an immediate need for an update or that the app somehow violated Google's Play Store policies. Or maybe the developer may even have just accidentally unpublished it? We reached out for comment, and a Sygnify representative offered the following:

"The Google Play Store team mistakenly suspended the listing of our main Philips Hue App (4.0) earlier today. The suspended app was the result of Google misinterpreting our compliance regarding the various versions of our main Hue app. We apologize to anyone who may have been impacted by this. The Philips Hue app is now live again in the App store."

In any case, the problem has been resolved and the Hue app is back on the Play Store (or App store, according to this rep).

UPDATE: 2021/06/23 9:28am PDT BY STEPHEN SCHENCK

Hue's app listing is back on the Play Store

The app is back and Signify has provided a comment on the brief disappearance. Everything for Hue owners should be back to normal.

Philips Hue Developer: Signify Netherlands B.V.
Price: Free
3.7
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