LIFX Reviews

I know a lot of people don’t like the new UI, but it’s honestly a bit clearer, and looks much better. I only fumbled for a few days, accidentally turning my room mates lights on because of the new swiping features. Once you relearn though, it feels like it was well thought out.

As far as functionality, it’s a bit wonky. To transition to a scene I want, I have to tap back and forth between two different scenes, as if I have to wake up the lights from a rest mode. Also, I’m aware tiles have been discontinued, at least for now, but LIFX tends to not have total control over them anymore. I have 3 connected in a straight line. Unless I use a premade scene (and even then sometimes), they will randomly switch to morph. No matter what color I set them to (aside from “off”), they always end up on morph after about 3-5 minutes of whatever I had just set it to.

Sometimes while browsing colors in the color wheel, you’ll experience the whole wheel spin around incredibly quickly, as if it’s attempting to catch up. Something about this version communicates with the lights much slower than before. This is all minor though, as it only takes a few seconds to troubleshoot and fix any problem.

The new app is a complete failure in functionality. What used to be a very straightforward operation in turning lights on or off has become twice as cumbersome with this revised app. The addition of fake line drawings of your different rooms is utterly pointless and only succeeds in filling up the screen so that you’re forced to scroll far too long if you have more than one room set up. The action of turning lights on or off is also much slower and unresponsive with the new app while adjusting individual lights in a group has become very difficult.

The new app has a greater emphasis on effects such as making all the lights in your house flicker like a candle or perform an epilepsy-inducing strobe. Pointless. Classic case of ‘can we do this’ instead of ‘should we do this’.

LIFX development team at this app should be ashamed at their lack of user testing. Clearly they’ve been given too much freedom to be ‘artistic’ without any checks on actual usability. I hate this new app and every loyal customer of this app will too. I wish I went with the Hue.

I’ve been a this app user since 2018 and LIFX has only gotten better. It has some of the best lighting customizations without needed a 3rd party app. I’ve even grown to enjoy the new updates interface that everyone complains about. My big gripe with LIFX is the Apple Watch version. I usually want to use the watch for my light switches because it’s always on my wrist but it’s always super laggy and takes 5-10 seconds before I can turn the lights on and off with it, which defeats the convenience and speed of having your light controls on the watch. Once it loads up the switches sometimes don’t work or seem to get reversed so off becomes on. 3/5 stars might seem harsh for just the watch app issues but when I am spending $40 per bulb and up to $250 for some of their lights, I expect a perfected and responsive app. I would suggest this app adds a 2nd watch widget besides just a button to open LIFX . If they added a widget that just acted as a switch for a selected group of lights it would go a long way to make the watch experience better.

Aside from the bad interface of LIFX . I have 4 bulbs for a over year in my room and had the HomePod mini for couple months. Every time I want to copy a scene from LIFX to HomeKit, it would tell me “export failed” all of the time. Even if I get it to work, it would only copy 2 or 3 or all of bulbs but the colors won’t be the same from the scene I created. Another issue with my HomePod mini. Either it’s LIFX , iOS 14, or the latest firmware update of these bulbs that are giving my such a headache trying to make them work. Every time I want them to turn on, the HomePod won’t recognize them therefore I have tell Siri through my phone to turn them on and they work or the HomeKit app or the actual app. I also reset these bulbs and my network, after setting them up they would only work for a day then after it would start the whole error again. I shouldn’t have to be having a headache nor be a technician to have these ridiculous and annoying issues from a simple smart bulb that should be working out of the box. It’s hard to recommend them and would might recommend them to other competitors instead. Please fix this issue.

An honest review. In my opinion one of the best lights to get on the market for beams. $160 for 6 beams including a corner is pretty fair. It comes with a great variety of colors and different settings and themes to go along with it. Love the pallets and overall really bright lights especially for bedrooms. Personally I don’t have a bedroom light or lamp and use the this app beams for lighting. The downside is the connectivity. On multiple occasions I had to reset my lights and repair them because the beams lost connection to my wifi, the set up process is very annoying. Unplugging the lights 5x to factory reset is a pain, especially if you have the plugin somewhere behind desk or furniture. Despite connectivity being an issue occasionally these lights are some of the best lights I’ve seen and are my personal favorite. Could be I got a bit of a defect or an issue with the wifi but great lights overall! 9/10 recommend!

I’ve got this app strips, and for the quality of these lights, I think the outrageous price for such short strips is *slightly* more justified. The depth of color, brightness, and overall quality are the best I’ve ever purchased.

However, I think the UX/UI of the this app app is quite limited when it comes to allowing the user to easily customize these brilliant strips. For precise projects, the lack of an undo/redo button on the Painting feature makes simple mistakes such a pain to fix. Also more scales of customization like hex colors in the painting feature, and dividing up the painting strip into a little grid that each represents like 2 leds instead of the strange blurred/blended strip that there currently is would be incredibly useful.

Just some thoughts, but overall an alright app that I think is just limiting the potential of these great quality lights.

I actually emailed this app a pretty lengthy email about this (with no response) but here’s an abbreviated version.

The lights themselves are amazing. Really love them. No questions there about whether I’d purchase again or continue to because I will.

LIFX on the other hand is barely useable. Here’s a short list of grievances:

- Effects can’t be saved with scenes. This is crazy. Why can I not save the exact setup I want with effects included? I ALWAYS want a specific effect with my studio lights. How hard is this to implement?

- Effects can’t be run without app being on. This is also aggravating for someone who is OCD about constantly quitting apps that aren’t in use by habit.

- Much larger overall issue but the ergonomics hierarchy here is so so wrong. The menu layouts are terrible and it takes many steps to achieve some things that should only take a few clicks. Example: scenes should be stored with built in color palettes. Instead I have to adjust my light, go to another tab, select the scene, go into the scene, assign it, and then go back out. How about, select light, select scene..... done.

- Google Nest integration is broken because of nest/google login issue

Those are just to name a few... LIFX needs a total overhaul even though you guys put work into the new one. It’s truly objectively bad design.

Love the lights tho!

I have had these three this app bulbs for a few months each bulb cost around $30. Now I figured the price would be worth it “you get what you pay for…” right?? Well not exactly. These bulbs have nice colors and light themes, so of course whenever a problem arises we give them the benefit of the doubt. Plus they’re quality, I mean why else would they be that expensive, right? I noticed they began having minor issues such as, one or two lightbulbs not turning on or off at the same time as they should, but it was usually an easy fix by flicking the light switch on and off. Over the short course of a month, the little problems have transformed to larger problems two light bulbs refuse to connect and Im stuck figuring out this solution myself. You think incompetent support wont be a problem until you’re having a specific technical issue you can’t find online. Lesson learned, if I could do it over I absolutely would have switched to a more reliable company like Phillips.

I’ve been testing the new app since it was in beta. The whole time I never found a bug. Now that it’s released, here one is! At first I thought I was going crazy, but I was able to repeat multiple times.

Here is what I found:
If you set a schedule and change the time from a static hour/minute to sunrise, and then offset the time (in my case, it was 1 hour before), once you hit SAVE, sunrise switches to SUNSET. You have to go back in and re-select Sunrise and then hit save again and it will save correctly.

Now for my general review:
Other than the bug I found, I really think this new app is a huge improvement over the previous version. It’s a lot easier to manage entire groups, set schedules, and the timeline view really helps see the order that everything is happening. IDK why so many people are finding this version so difficult to work with. If you organize your lights into groups, changes to multiple lights are a lot easier. Maybe if you only have a small number of lights it’s more cumbersome, but I’ve got 15 and on the old app it took me forever to get everything the way I wanted it.

But that’s just me. To each their own!

Once again, the old saying holds true, if its not broken, dont fix it! This new design has been around and it allows us to do the simple things. However, trying to remove a light, a location, is impossible. And for the life of me, i cannot figure out how to get my moms this app account to stop controlling my lights too ON MY ACCOUNT. No one ever linked these accounts together, yet any change she makes on her this app account transfers to mine as well. Besides the fact that the lights randomly disconnect and become uncontrollable until you flip the light switch off and on again (which happens often and this app support does not have an answer to this). I have been wanting to switch to phillips hue for quite some time and this new issue is the final nail in the coffin. Locating the fun stuff (like the strobe effect) has been very confusing, to the point that my mom has given up on trying to have fun with her light. We will deal with the lights as they are for now, but they will be destroyed and recycled next year.

I feel like the functionality in the home tab is crammed and could be spread out more. I also feel like a lot of space is wasted on the bottom bar. For example, there is a tab for store, which is the this app site, then there is a discover tab which is pretty cool, but it also redirects to articles on the this app site. Lastly on that same discover tab there is another button at the top that really pops “go to site”. On my hue app, there is only one place to visit the site, and it’s hidden away which is nice since it doesn’t distract from the actual functionality LIFX needs to do: controlling lights.

For 100% of my usage I do not want to go to site, instead I want to control my lights. If I ever need to go to the site I will do it through my browser.

I would also like to see the ability to download scenes created by other users.

For the majority of my life waking up in the morning felt like walking around with my face slapped. I was extra sensitive, irritable, and on edge. Being able to program lighting brightness and manage the lighting throughout the day has been an unexpected positive life change. Occasionally in life you come across certain things that you didn’t know you needed. This light bulb is one of them. Even when I’m tired because of the way I’m positively woken up, I no longer feel on edge. I can’t wait to be able to connect my smart ring to my lighting and more advanced scenes(I’m working on a spa scene for home spa days). Thank you for your products. This didn’t solve all my problems but it definitely helps.

Where is the ability to create my own multi-color themes. You developers removed the ability completely! It used to be in the color palette section and I remember the option to select from the palette and draw my own themes, which then I could save as a scene and quickly select it instead of redrawing it. it’s gone now and nowhere to be found. All I can do is pick a solid color from the palette and save it as scene AKA save my favorite SOLID colors to the dashboard. That’s so infuriating and such a downgrade it’s not even funny. How come I can pick from these multi-color preset themes made by the developers but I no longer get to create my own? That ability was why I loved these light strips more than any other light strips and what made them so much more unique from the rest. Now there’s no creativity, just preset multi-color themes and the ability to choose from the color wheel. Please add this ability back. Thank you.

Buggy as hell. Half of the time that i open LIFX , it doesnt allow me to select the light. When it does work, it bugs out like crazy. Whenever i try to dim or brighten a light. It will sometimes swap out the brightness wheel with the color wheel as my finger is pressed against it and swiping. That means the color gets all screwed up. The icon to favorite a light so that i can use it as a widget is missing. There is literally no fix for it online anywhere. The icing on the cake, i tried a workaround with ifttt and setup my own widget. It connects, but doesn’t work at all. I know it isn’t iftt because it works with my other smart systems without a problem. Utter garbage. this app and wemo have to be hands down, the WORST user experiences that i’ve ever had with any product ever. I suggest you spend your money elsewhere so you don’t have to go through the same frustrations. Everything about this app is awful.

The quality of both the white and colored lights is far superior to Philips Hue’s! The colors are more intense and the greens and purples don’t look ‘washed out’ like the Hues.’ Plus, the whites are much brighter and more ‘crisp’!!

The only negative I have...is I wish this app worked with more 3rd party devices. For example, even though I prefer this app, I have Philips Hue in my living room because it works with the switches I have. However, whenever I find a switch that doesn’t require a neutral wire and works with this app...I will immediately switch those light bulbs to this app!!!
I also use a Philips Hue Sync Box, and the associated diffused tv light strip...but would also LOVE to switch to this app once they offer something comparable!!

This new update fixed everything! Thank god! The this app app use to work great when it first came out through LIFX then about a year ago or so they did an update that if a light went out of sync (dark) it was impossible to get back in the group working properly. This new update wow! Way cool! Now you can go into your settings of your phone when a light goes dark turn the light off and on 5 times to reset it then see it in your WiFi settings and just re sync it, no more having the light ip # to add back into LIFX , it’s super easy and flawless again! Since the update we have had zero issues with any lights going dark. It’s so awesome to have it working 100% again.

This is one of the only reviews I’ve ever written which is why I feel so strongly about what I’m about to say. LIFX UI is just absolutely confusing. Settings that should be grouped together are scattered across random portions of LIFX , and I find myself just tapping random things until I find what I’m looking for. As far as function goes, I’ve never had any issues with LIFX actually running correctly until recently. Now whenever I try to delete a light, the page loads then just randomly times out with out completing said function. This makes it very difficult for me to just play around with my smart home setup because I have to jump through hoops to do just about anything. I enjoy your brand and I don’t want to buy from a different company, but the last few months of LIFX have been unacceptable.

It works, and I never had any problems with it. I do like the selection of scenes but it feels like I should have much more from you or a community to choose from. Also, after using schedules for a while I hope for a feature to somehow turn on the lights when someone who comes in proximity of the home that has LIFX installed.

Other than that, keep rocking it with the lights and app. Keep it consistently updated with new stuff. Thanks! 4/5

Update: I have changed my 4/5 to 5/5. Just because of homekit, thank you! The best decision you have made, just wish it included the Z strip.. You came out with the Z strip upon mentioning homekit was in development. Still, you are constantly updating and keeping with the lights so props to you! Now I can quickly access lighting options if I need to and have the lights turn off and on according to location. Best update! Looking forward to more in the future.

Edit of 2020, new app design. I own more than ten of your lights. I love your company and how great these lights look especially my oldest ones of 3 years now. I really enjoy you, this app. Keep growing, you are the best around!

The lights when themselves and LIFX works fine, no issue really. It is just a major pain when you have a major power out again or internet changes to reconnect everything when you have lights in every room. Alexa app for example notified me that the internet was not connect brought up the page to put in our new password and it went into effect with every Alexa in our home. These lights however there is nothing in LIFX to globally update them or even individually update the lights internet, just tells you it’s not connect. You have to reset each light one at a time… very annoying. Please update LIFX to make this process easier.

Lights are cool, beautiful colors, could change them & save a scene the first coupla days. But most other features like the animations etc did not work. WAY 2 EXPENSIVE for a product that has no customer service or response to frustrated buyers efforts to contact them.
Was excited to connect with my Apple HomeKit- nope. Scanned lights into HomeKit but wouldn’t recognize the bulbs or app. So couldn’t use that most important feature. Then app froze my new iPhone 12 pro - COMPLETELY. Trying to shut phone off rang a whooping alarm! I had to lookup a special button push to shut down & reset it. The lifz app has NEVER Worked again- will immediately freeze my phones & ipad. Uninstalled and returning as it’s useless.
No customer support or service from this app. Returning this, too bad they’re ignoring issues and now -All of these negative reviews and not 1 answer from the company. DO NOT BUY, you’ll regret it.

Update: The recent updates are definitely improving the overall usability and I’m very happy. I’d still like to see some work around the various controls as they are a bit convoluted. Happy to see this app continuing to improve LIFX and the lights. I’m also very much looking forward to getting a switch.

All in all I get the goal with this update and I like the introduction of a more visually focused UI design. As with any overhaul I’m sure we’ll see some iterative updates which I’m also looking forward to seeing. I’d like for scenes to be more of a primary interface as they seem more user friendly but it’s not hard to navigate to them. Keep up the good work!

This new app change awful!!!! I can’t even set up an existing light and have it stay connected! It would have been nice to have been given a choice to update or not. LIFX is neither user friendly nor intuitive. The lights stopped responding while I was out of town and would not follow the set schedule.
I was 3k miles away and couldn’t fix the problem. Turns out it was a firmware update that interrupted the performance. No notification of required firmware update - what good are lights on a schedule (for security) when you have to be present to update?
Furthermore, if the light drops out of the “Cloud” the process to re-connect is very cumbersome. It requires you unplug/turn off the light 5 times before you can reconnect. And then it still doesn’t work!
I have 8 of these bulbs in my house and feel it is a total waste of money as I will be changing to a more reliable product!

After the update, my light strips will no longer stay connected to my home WiFi (it’s not the connectivity issue, literally everything in my house is connected to WiFi and works except this app). Before if I forgot to turn them off before leaving home I could do so very simply with the old app. Now the light strips “go dark” for hours, even when I’m at home. Most of the time I am left to just open up LIFX every now and then to see if they come back online. On the contrary the new design LOOKS good. It’s not functional in any way whatsoever. Unless you just like to swipe through countless menus and make yourself look like you’re busy at all times. Not sure what was the purpose or the reasoning behind this update that literally no one asked for. It’s good to know that the redesign has rendered my light setup completely useless for the past week. Thanks for that!

I’m reluctant to leave a review such as this, but honestly I don’t know what has happened with LIFX . The recent revision has made it almost unusable. I’ve only ever used the this app app to coax reluctant bulbs to follow their schedule, or even to turn them on or off if the HomeKit app doesn’t get the bulb(s) to respond. The original app did exactly what I wanted it to do...quickly. The new revision presupposes that I’m using my bulbs, and the this app app, to manage groups and effects, which I am not. A more useful enhancement (for me) would have been to set lights coming on (or going off) at specified times relative to local sunrise and sunset. As it is, I have to go in and adjust the schedule manually a couple of times a month. I’m sure that this app software engineering worked hard on this latest update. I just wish it were meeting my needs more effectively.

LIFX in looks has improved, but noticed something strange. I have been having issues with connecting LIFX to the bulb for sometime now. The contacted support who said to reset everything. So I removed LIFX , but then post. I did a search I found that there were remnants of LIFX . I find this troubling. If I have removed an app and it tells me it will remove all my data, the it should right? I loaded LIFX to find that it did not. I want to just remove LIFX now, but can’t since there seems to remain artifacts of LIFX that will not erase. I do not have a backup of any apps in iCloud, so why and how is it that this app settings and third party licenses even after I have erased LIFX and restarted my phone. I am concerned about what is happening and what is being scraped. Call me paranoid, but this feels like a security nightmare.

So I’ve had this bulb for a few years and it’s been great. The only downside is trying to connect it to a new WiFi or reconnecting it after changing your WiFi password. However I’ve figured out how to connect to my WiFi in 1 or 2 tries with a simple trick (IPhone).

1. Go to your phone settings and set your home WiFi to “Auto-Join”.

2. Press home and open this app app and follow directions to connect your light. When you reach the point where it asks you to select your home WiFi. Select the first “WPA(most common)” or whatever your home WiFi type is

3. Enter your user & password. (Before pressing connect make sure your WiFi setting is open on your phone)

4. Press connect and immediately double tap the home button to switch to WiFi setting screen.

5. Your phone should connect to your home WiFi

6. Immediately switch back to this app app, and your phone should connect to your light.

Hope this helps

LIFX and light itself were perfect when we bought it in December. Loved the color and mood options and it performed effortlessly. This latest update to “firmware” has left LIFX useless and the light no longer functioning. I paid a good little chunk for the light with smart capabilities and for the convenience of using the phone to control it (outlet switch is hard to get to). Since the update, every attempt to turn the light on and off has left LIFX thinking for several minutes only to reveal the light has “gone dark”. Our internet connection is always strong in this room, phones and tv can connect no problem. This only started happening after the latest update. If you can fix this bug, the light and app would be amazing and convenient. Right now regretting spending my money as it’s completely useless.

The new 4.0 update is more complicated and unintuitive. The new design is not an evolution to the prior one; it’s devolved. It involves more swiping to accomplish the same tasks, and it’s not clear which menu contains the function you’re looking for.

But what I hate the most with the 4.0 design is that with the old design, you could apply effects on per-light basis. So if I have a beam in the living room and strip in the bedroom, with the old version, I could apply the animate effect to both of them simultaneously. But with the 4.0 version, the animate effect can only be applied to the living room beam or the bedroom strip, but not both simultaneously. This is trash. this app please pull this version from LIFX Store and revert to the old functionality. Luckily I still have the old version of LIFX on my iPad and I will never update it until this app fixes this devolution.