Philips Hue has updated its mobile app to make controlling your smart lighting easier.

Available from today, 3 June, and rolling out globally over the next week, the Philips Hue app 4.0 adds more than 100 new features or tweaks. It also has a refined design and makes many popular settings quicker and easier to access.

The app has been rebuilt "from the ground up", Pocket-lint was told during a media presentation.

It has a more chunky, easier to view look about it with new touches including room colour bars on the homescreen dimming or getting brighter depending on your actual in-room lighting.

The app is more speedy, so if you change your lighting using a separate device, it will instantly show the changes on the app too - rather than 10 - 20 seconds behind, as before.

Philips Hue app 4.0 released, rebuilt from the ground up photo 1

There is a new contextual button on all screens that will bring up a menu to enable you to sort and create zones more easily. And, scenes and lights are now shown on the same tile page to put controls front and centre without you having to dig through different tabs or menus.

One major new feature adds to the home & away functionality introduced with the last generation. You can now have geofence settings based on multiple users, so that lights don't change or turn off when the main account holder leaves the area. It now looks for other users still within the geofence too.

Philips Hue app 4.0 released, rebuilt from the ground up photo 2

Finally, an entertainment setup mode has been added that gives you better all round control of a whole room's lighting, with height options to change the hues of your bulbs depending on a swipe of a finger.

The new version of the Philips Hue app is available for iOS and Android now, although it might take a week to update in your location.