I say if you aren't going to do holiday lights, you shouldn’t bother—go Griswold, or go home—and Govee’s smart Christmas string lights might give you a reason to go to the trouble. Despite suffering from the usual quirks I've experienced with other Govee products (more on that in a bit), these lights are easy to install, connect to the internet, and use to make an interactive display.
Despite a glut of smart tech on the market, there aren’t a lot of well known players producing holiday lights. Govee, a company with an extensive range of smart tech, produces an entire line of them, and has introduced new options this year, available both on their own and in variety packs. The line even includes permanent outdoor lights, so you can skip the yearly ritual of risking life and limb setting them up. Voice Command Lights
There are a number of benefits to using smart lights instead of traditional lights outside, and Govee's products have them all covered. First, you want to be able to easily turn them off and on without having to actually go outside. Sure, you can do this with remotes and smart plugs, but it’s easier to do it from an app or a smart hub integration for HomeKit, Google Home, or Alexa. From within the Govee app, you can schedule the time of day you want the lights to go on and off, but from within your hub, you can also create entire scenes with multiple lights, music, and triggers.
Second, while LED lights have come far in producing a fuller color range, including gorgeous ombre and rainbows, only a smart system can let you design those schemes and customize them on the fly. Basically, a smart string can turn even a simple display into a dazzling show worth standing around to watch.
Though they offer many preprogrammed light shows, the Govee's best feature is their ability to sync to a soundtrack. Each string of lights includes a mic to pick up nearby sound, or you can power it from your phone. You can also purchase a small device called a Music Sync Box from Govee for about $30; it’s basically a wireless microphone, so you can place it near the sidewalk, put up a sign that says "the lights respond to voices," and then watch in delight as people walk by and speak, sing, and laugh as the lights respond.
In my own tests using these options, I could tell the music was responsive, if not quite what I've seen from some other directly programmed musical outdoor displays. The lights never went out when the music did, defaulting to a solid color instead, and there didn’t seem to be a beat to the lights changing color, just more gradual color shifts.
Govee not only produces smart tech in every imaginable consumer tech sector, but clearly believes in giving the consumer as much control over their tech as possible. The result is often an overwhelming in-app experience: There are a million screens and controls, and it’s unclear where to start. You can choose the color scheme, the movement scheme, and decide whether its calm or active, and each section offers countless different presets and customizations, all accessed via many different embedded screens. With so many presets, you should never need to create a custom scheme using the molecular level controls they offer. Also, these controls are only available in the app, and not accessible via any smart hub.
While the ability to turn the lights on and off is via wifi, you’ll need to be close enough to use Bluetooth to handle all other controls (color, movement, and sound), which means you can’t change it while you're away from home. Also, the lights need to be on in order to make changes. That said, the lights paired easily the first time I tried, and each time since over the last few weeks of use.
This string of outdoor lights uses a USB-to-plug adapter that is not weatherproof, which is puzzling, as Govee does offer outdoor plugs. It would be a shame to lose the string because water infiltrated the adapter. (These start at $60 for a 33-foot string, after all.) I also can’t see an easy way to chain multiple strings together, which is kind of essential to the holiday light experience. You can upgrade to a 66-foot string, but beware: That length is deceptive, because the 8 feet of cord between the last light and the plug is counted in the overall measurement.
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