Twinkly 4+

Big Improvement this year

I must admit that last year, when I first purchased the lights, they were frustratingly unstable and I was sorely tempted to return them, but being so beautiful and uniquely cool and tech based, I decided that for one month of the year, they were worth the compromise.
This year, I’m happy to announce a massive improvement in the stability of the lights and connection to this app. They have been in constant use for two weeks now and have not required any resets etc. I have three sets of 400 bulbs grouped together on our massive tree and they look brilliant. The app is a lot more stable than last year when it would crash or fail to connect to my lights and other than one or two patterns flagging up an error (here’s looking at you diagonal rainbow) which mean I cannot use them, on the whole it’s a vastly improved experience. I also use three sets of twinkly curtains in my shop window and get many compliments on how amazing they look. All in all a much more complete experience than previously. Very pleased that they haven’t abandoned customers and continue to update and refine the system.

Hardware excellent, app needs improvement!

I’ve festooned our tree with the 400 LED string “special edition” gen 2 twinkly lights. Basic functionality almost works but...

Building a play list crashes my iPad, I’ve only managed a playlist containing 2 effects. The transitions between items in a playlist is harsh, no effort in blending between. (I’ve enjoyed programming “Neopixels” (RGB programmable LEDs) with the “Fast LED” library so perhaps I’ve been spoilt in the past)

Even though the lights are mapped in 3D (vey nice feature) you cant create a 3D pattern yourself, only 2D. There don’t seem to be (m)any 3D patterns to download.

You can create your own pattern, but the tools are very limited - there are only options for colour, “line width” thick and thin, and one option for “sparkle”. For instance, varying the rate or sequence of “sparkle” of different LEDs isn’t possible. Implementing a “photoshop style” toolbox of LED configurations would be nice.

As far as I can see, there isn’t an option for creating custom animations, or a programmatic API or “desktop editor” for more powerful control, which is a real shame.

So all in all, the hardware is nice, but for the price, I expected more from the controller app.

Love the hardware, the software could be better.

I have Twinkly Squares and Strings, and from a hardware perspective, I love them. They are however, let down by the software.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty stable and quite straightforward, but if you want to expand beyond the included effects, things rapidly become annoying.

There’s no way to create your own categories for effects, for instance. And when you’re using (the Squares in my case) all year round, it’s really, really annoying having to scroll through hundreds of effects to find the one you want.

3D mapping with the Strings has been a particular pain point. It eventually works, but no matter what I try, the front is always off to the left. You’d think a simple 90° adjustment in the app would rectify this, but for some reason, no, it’s not.
Far easier would be to illuminate a crosshair on the tree itself, so you could see your adjustments in real-time.

There’s no cloud syncing of effects, playlists or anything. So you have to manually share each and every GIF you add with every member of your family who’s using the app - all logged in with a single account, so it’s nothing to do with that.

There are quite a few more things I’d change in the software, but this would end up being a very long list and despite the software, I don’t want to put you off buying these. They really are good products, just be prepared to potentially get annoyed with the software.

Developer Response ,

Hi there,
thank you so much for sharing your experience with us!
If you want to check if there's something we can do to improve our app response on your device, reach out to our Support team (twinkly.com, help, contact us) they will be happy to assist!
Thanks again for your feedback, have a good day!