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Review: Twinkly's HomeKit-Compatible String Lights Are Perfect for the Holidays
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Best Buy has the 600 light strands with the music controller on sale for $180. That’s the best price I’ve seen by far.
I grabbed a few in November and they’re really incredible.
I grabbed a few in November and they’re really incredible.
These sound pretty cool. I might have to try these out next year.
Snagged 2 of the 250 RGB+W sets last year and was so impressed that I picked up another 250. My tree is approximately 6ft, so this is a fantastic setup! Sure, it's not as densely lit as the demo trees you see online, but it's still pretty impressive. Highly recommend these if you want a very polished, unique lighting option 
My only gripe with HomeKit is that while the 3 strands are merged into/function as a singular group in the Twinkly app, the Home app sees them as 3 separate strands - wish it recognized it as 1. Or did I miss something when I added them to the Home app?
My only gripe with HomeKit is that while the 3 strands are merged into/function as a singular group in the Twinkly app, the Home app sees them as 3 separate strands - wish it recognized it as 1. Or did I miss something when I added them to the Home app?
Been wanting these for years, but after Ring promised HomeKit just before selling out to Amazon, I do not buy products that announce or promise that HK compatibility are coming.
My better half just found out about these this year when some friends of ours bought them, so hopefully we'll see a sale after Christmas for next year.
My better half just found out about these this year when some friends of ours bought them, so hopefully we'll see a sale after Christmas for next year.
We got Twinkly lights last year. They are excellent and they just keep getting better. In addition to adding HomeKit this year, they also increased the amount of different effects/patterns you can store on the lights themselves. I went from being able to store about 8 different effects before the memory was full, to now having more than that and still having 70% memory available.
I had just been plugging the lights into a dedicated smart plug, and then asking Siri to turn on the plug. The lights come right on and start playing the effects you've added to its memory. Now with HomeKit, I don't even need the smart plug.
They are fairly expensive, but they look fantastic, work perfectly, and really enhance the holiday cheer.
I had just been plugging the lights into a dedicated smart plug, and then asking Siri to turn on the plug. The lights come right on and start playing the effects you've added to its memory. Now with HomeKit, I don't even need the smart plug.
They are fairly expensive, but they look fantastic, work perfectly, and really enhance the holiday cheer.
Just out of interest, why use the Smartplug route over the built in automated timer baked into the Twinklys themselves?
You can group lights (or any accessories) in Home - just go to the accessory's settings, scroll down and there's a GROUP>Group with Other Accessories... option. You can then control them as a single device.Snagged 2 of the 250 RGB+W sets last year and was so impressed that I picked up another 250. My tree is approximately 6ft, so this is a fantastic setup! Sure, it's not as densely lit as the demo trees you see online, but it's still pretty impressive. Highly recommend these if you want a very polished, unique lighting option
My only gripe with HomeKit is that while the 3 strands are merged into/function as a singular group in the Twinkly app, the Home app sees them as 3 separate strands - wish it recognized it as 1. Or did I miss something when I added them to the Home app?
Well the joke is on me. I made an impulse purchase last night of the 100 light string to spice up the kid’s Xmas prezzie reveal, and it arrived this lunchtime… totally DOA. ?
I never noticed it has a timer, lol! I just added the smartplug as part of my "goodnight" automation (which turns off all my normal lights and makes sure doors are locked at the same time).
I have wanted twinkley lights for several years and finally this was the year. Just couldn’t resist that Best Buy sale and was tired of my old lights. I won’t get tired with these. Had some problems setting up one of the two strings I boughts, but once set up have had no problems at all. They look fantastic on the trees I have on either side of my driveway. And the trees are synced together too. So awesome. My trees have never looked better actually. I especially love the solid colors with random blue/white twinkles. I made my own green and red versions and had them cycling between that and white along with a candy cane pattern. Now that it is New Year’s Eve as I type this, I have switched that out for an effect that bubbles up like a champagne bottle. Pretty cool. I wanted to use the numbers countdown effect they have, but quickly learned that you need way more lights for that and probably a flatter service. It just looked like blobs of light...lol.
Think I am going to get even more for next year because now I kind of want to go around the windows on the house which looks plain and boring. All in all, I am very happy with the results. I do agree with others that the app is a little too clunky. And also isn’t as intuitive as it should be. But that’s the only negative I have.
Think I am going to get even more for next year because now I kind of want to go around the windows on the house which looks plain and boring. All in all, I am very happy with the results. I do agree with others that the app is a little too clunky. And also isn’t as intuitive as it should be. But that’s the only negative I have.
@MadeTheSwitch Here is a sample of one of the sequences I created using xLights this year. I believe there is a guy working on integrating support for Twinkly Lights into xLights so you may be able to do something similar in the future ...
So who on this thread, who wrote last year that you'd get them after the holidays, actually did that?
Ha, that’s a good question. After my first set of Twinkly light (see above) I didn’t bother to get more in preparation for this year. But I don’t plan anything 11 months ahead.
I did receive a Hue string this week though, and it’s likely I’ll try to get another. (Hue’s ordering in the UK is backlogged by about a week)
Overall I prefer the Hue, because it can automatically blend in with the existing room scenes. Certainly it has far less animation features, and the bulbs don’t really look any better than the Twinkly, but it’s much easier to get a pleasant colour palette because the app is much better.
I did receive a Hue string this week though, and it’s likely I’ll try to get another. (Hue’s ordering in the UK is backlogged by about a week)
Overall I prefer the Hue, because it can automatically blend in with the existing room scenes. Certainly it has far less animation features, and the bulbs don’t really look any better than the Twinkly, but it’s much easier to get a pleasant colour palette because the app is much better.