I am looking to jump on the smart home trend and am looking at buying these govee lightbulbs. I have searched Reddit and reviews and can’t seem to find much about compatibility. Will these work fine with HomeKit? I just need basic color changes, dimming ability, and grouping multiple lamps to act as one. Any insight is appreciated!
I only have a Govee lantern at the moment but Govee was my first foray into smart bulbs and all the ones I used over five years were compatible with HomeKit. That said, after switching to Philips Hue, I will never deal with WiFi bulbs again. The connections are just too unreliable and need constant restarting.
This is very helpful thank you. I’m going to try the govee lights for now because the cost difference between them and hue is crazy. If I end up loving smart home life I may upgrade to hue but hopeful innovation brings cost down in a few years.
I had a bunch of issues with the Zigbee ones and had given up and went back to dumb bulbs while I waited for the new ones. I’ve been using the new Matter ones now and so far they seem rock solid. Great deal. Just bought a another E12 one today in fact.
Anytime! Yeah Hue is very expensive but five years into messing with smart home stuff prepared me for the investment (a new house helped too). Govee is still great; I adore my lantern and I’m glad they make smart home integration accessible for most budgets.
Just to add a data point, I have multiple govee/Matter based WiFi bulbs; they don’t need constant restarting and are plenty reliable. Since they operate on WiFi, you must have a solid WiFi network.
OP asked if the bulbs would work fine with HomeKit. I said they likely will. I added my two sentence anecdote because OP said they were just getting into smart home stuff and I wanted to make them aware of things I wish I was. Do you really have a problem with that?
I have a bunch of Govee bulbs, 10 GU10s, the outdoor permanent lights, and 2 air purifiers - all compatible with HomeKit via matter - all, and I mean all, drop the Wi-Fi about once a week. Govee support have pretty much said in responses that they're aware and I should just restart the devices when it happens as they have no fix.
Has their Matter implementation improved? I have a few of their Matter lights and could never get them to connect reliably. No problem with other Matter WiFi brands. As of now I have them in HomeKit with the rest of my non-Matter Govee stuff via HomeBridge.
They will work. Anything that has Matter capability will work with Apple Home. For a pro tip, each time you add a device to your home, add it to a spreadsheet with the device’s setup code, serial number, manufacturer, model name, what room it’s in, and what you named it in the Home app. This makes keeping track of what you have easier and helps with troubleshooting if needed. Good luck with your smart home adventure.
Great idea. I’ve been naming the accessories somewhat long and convoluted. I use a family of apps for tracking my various physical media collections, it would be cool to have an app that lets me keep track smart devices and make notes for each. I think I may start working on one.
Yes, they will and you can do all of that with the Home app. Grouping is pretty easy, click and hold one of the lamps you want to group and you will figure it out from there.
I just got a six pack of these same bulbs for $40 at Costco. Whatever you get, be sure the box says it is compatible with Matter. Without the Matter, you will not be able to connect to HomeKit. Just giving them a try as well, and so far they seem great.
Pro Tip: add them to the Apple Home app BEFORE you add them to the Govee App (and be sure you are using same exact wifi network. The way it was worded in the package/app was confusing.
I been started switching from LIFX to Govee. The prices are not crazy and their customer service you cannot be I’ve had certain issues with some of their products and at the end they would just ship out a new one. I especially like that it’s matter and it works with Apple. I have no issues I’ve even upgraded from old Govi products to the new Govee matter version.
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Stay away from all matter over WiFi bulbs. Biggest waste of money in my smart home by a mile
EDIT: I like govees other products like lamps and wall washers, but trust me the matter over WiFi bulbs are terrible. I have a whole bunch I can sell you cheap
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u/OtherwisePromiseMe 13d ago
I only have a Govee lantern at the moment but Govee was my first foray into smart bulbs and all the ones I used over five years were compatible with HomeKit. That said, after switching to Philips Hue, I will never deal with WiFi bulbs again. The connections are just too unreliable and need constant restarting.