Twinkly Flex, your personalized neon lights with HomeKit

We try the new ones Flex smart lights from Twinkly, with the look of neon lights but with better features and also compatible with HomeKit.

Surely you have seen neon lights with fantastic designs in many videos and photos on social networks and you would like to have yours with a totally personalized design. Twinkly Flex allows you this and much more, thanks to its extraordinary light mapping system, to be able to create the design you imagine yourself and all the possibilities offered by automations and HomeKit environments.

Characteristics

• length 2 meters
• 2 meter cable
• Type of lights: LED
• Number of lights: 192
• RGB colors (+16 million)
• Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity
• IP20 certification (only suitable for indoors)
• Compatibility with HomeKit, Alexa and Google Assistant

facility

Everything we need for installation is included in the Twinkly Flex box. The two meters of lights are encased in a translucent plastic cover that keeps the tiny LED bulbs from being noticed and gives them that neon look. It is also completely flexible, so we can create designs of all kinds that we can fix to the wall (or any other smooth surface) thanks to the fixing parts included, a total of 16 clips (12 straight and 4 at 90 degrees) that we can fix with adhesive (included) or with screw .

For the designs we can choose to use our imagination or use one of the templates included in the box. If these designs do not convince us, we can upload other designs on Twinkly website (link) or as I said before, use our imagination. We must take into account the length of the LED tube (2 meters) and the clips we have, but the possibilities are almost endless. It is a very simple process although you will probably need someone to help you as there are situations where you are short on hands.

Setting

Once you’ve placed your lights in your desired design, the setup process is super easy using the Twinkly app (link). You need to have the lights plugged in and when you open the app they will automatically detect you through Bluetooth. During the setup process, you must follow the instructions in the app (in the video you can see it in full) to give it access to the WiFi network, which will be the connection medium the lights will use once configured.

Inside the setup process light mapping included. This is the system that Twinkly uses to recognize the created design so that the animations and colors look perfect in its lights. This is a process that our iPhone camera is used for and that no matter how many times I repeat it, it never ceases to amaze me with how well it works. If you’ve never seen it, I recommend watching it in the video in this article, as it’s one of the keys to why Twinkly’s lights are different from others.

Twinky app

The official app will be the one we use for the whole configuration process, but also for controlling all the functions of the smart lights. If we want to use 100% of the features that these Twinkly Flex offer us, we will have no other alternative but to use their application, since it will be the only one that will allow us download all the effects and animations that make the difference with the rest. We have a very complete catalog in the app, but we can create our own designs, we can even “paint” the lights with the colors we want with our finger.

Of course, we also have the most basic on, off, brightness control functions and we can even set automatic on and off schedules. And this will be the application that will allow us to firmware update LEDs, essential to access HomeKit compatibility. There is also the possibility of creating perfectly coordinated sets of luminaires with other luminaires from the brand.

Host request

After a quick firmware update, we got HomeKit compatibility. No need to enter QR code, the app itself is the one that adds the lights to the Home appbut we can get the code for future installations and save it on our reel, because inside the box we will not find any card with the code.

With Casa, we don’t have access to animations, multicolored patterns or other effects. HomeKit doesn’t allow these features (it’s about time I added them), but we have plenty of other options in return. The first is the possibility of controlling the lights by our voice, using Siri on the HomePod, iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad or any other Apple device. Also we have environments and automations, which will allow us to coordinate the lights of Twinkly with the lights of any other brand. Turn them on or off depending on whether you arrive or leave your home, create moods with lighting adapted to different times, such as playing the video game console, watching movies, dining with friends or creating a relaxing environment …

Editor’s review

The new Twinkly Flex smart lights give you all the functionality we know from smart lights, with Twinkly’s incredible light mapping allowing you to create fantastic lighting effects. The manufacturer has also added a new flexible design and a translucent finish which creates an effect very similar to that of neon lights, with the advantage that you create the figure you want yourself, making them unique in their category. And all this with a price lower than you can imagine: $ 74.25 on Amazon (link)

Versus

• Not valid for exteriors