Skip to main content

Brighten your home in 64,000 shades of white through Wiz Connected Lights

WiZ Connected Lights
Image used with permission by copyright holder

There is no shortage of companies designing ways to light your home for your every need.

 Wiz Connected Lights is hoping its voice-controlled lighting system will be the last one you ever need to buy.

Recommended Videos

The system was rolled out in North America in late August and features smart LED light bulbs, recessed lighting, and sensors, among other things, to keep your home well-lit. No smart home hub is required to turn on the system, which lights up through an app that allows you to “pair and share” in 30 seconds.

To activate Wiz Connected Lights, link up the lighting system to your home’s Wi-Fi using an intelligent setup system that is quick and easy. All you have to do is screw in your Wiz light bulb or plug in a Wiz luminaire.

Then, download the company’s app, which you can find on Google Play and the Apple App Store, which allows you to “pair and share” by tapping on your screen once and quickly clicking your light switch three times. Wiz does the rest, identifying the lights and activating them in under a minute.

There are multiple ways to light up the Wiz Connected Lights system, including through Wi-Fi on the app, remotely on your mobile network, using the Wizmote infrared remote control, through preset scheduling, or through voice commands via Amazon Echo or Google Home. You can access two preferred light modes with a simple click.

You can also use the app to remotely set up and control different rooms for different lighting options. Guests are also able to control your lighting if you give them access to your Wi-Fi network and Wiz app.

The Wiz Connected Lights system comes equipped with 64,000 shades of white and 16 million colors you can choose from. If you’re away from home, you can use the app to access vacation mode and turn your lights on.

The system can also connect and interact with a number of motion-detection cameras, sensors, mobile GPS, and even the weather app. One such example is the Nest camera, which can turn your lights on when it detects movement. It can also change the lighting to fit the mood when the temperature changes.

In fact, the Wiz Connected Lights include various preset white light functions such as cozy, warm, daylight, cool, focus, relax, and bedtime. It also includes more dynamic lighting options such as fireplace, mojito, forest, ocean, romance, and sunset.

You can buy the WiZ smart LED lights for $24.95 for a single adjustable white bulb, or $34.95 for a single full color and controllable white bulb.

Karl Utermohlen
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Karl Utermohlen is a finance and tech journalist with an MFA in creative writing from the University of Idaho. his do Zelda…
The Home Connectivity Alliance wants to bring you the smart home of your dreams
A 55-inch Samsung The Frame 4K TV hangs on a wall in a dining room.

The interconnected nature of smart home technology has long been the subject of discussion, especially with regard to the "walled gardens" that sprang up around different platforms. Many opinion pieces (our own included) said that the smart home would never be truly "smart" until interoperability became commonplace. Today, a number of different companies came together to announce the launch of the Home Connectivity Alliance, an organization devoted to creating interoperable appliances within the home. This announcement might pale in comparison to CES 2022 launches of a massive new TV or a nifty new robot vacuum, but it's just as important.

The HCA is made up of American Standard Heating and Air Condition, Arcelik, The Electrolux Group, Haier, GE Appliances, Samsung Electronics, and Trane Residential. The presence of some of these companies comes as a surprise given their relatively low profile in the smart home market, but Samsung's membership is no surprise at all. Samsung has long been a proponent of Matter, another platform pushing for interconnectivity between devices.

Read more
Why smart lights are the perfect entry point to the smart home
philips hue updates old products adds gradient strip iris lifestyle living room

Getting started with building a smart home can be daunting. The benefits are sort of nebulous at first, and the up-front cost can be off-putting. There are a lot of ways to approach the idea of building out a smart home, but we contend that smart lights are the best first step on that journey.
You can start small
If you want to upgrade your home's entire lighting setup at once, you can, but that can be pricy. Luckily, you can buy a single smart bulb for $20 without a separate hub and enjoy the benefits right away, and then decide to expand. Mix and match brands one light at a time to find the combination of cost and value that works best for you, then go all-in with whatever lighting system you like best.
The benefits are visible

The benefits of many smart home devices aren't quite as palpable as a smart light's. A smart light changes the mood of your entire home and reinvents your relationship with a light switch. Meanwhile, smart speakers can amount to a spooky robot ghost lady that lives in your kitchen. A smart lock gives you a different way to fumble for your keys. A smart thermostat operates quietly in the background with the end result being a comfortable temperature. These benefits are harder to come to grips with than turning your living room purple whenever you want.
Smart lights are idiot-proof
Setup for smart lights is painfully easy. It's often little more than turning off the light, popping out the old bulb, putting in the new one, turning the light on, and pairing with your phone. It's hard to mess up. In a worst-case scenario, you'll need to reset the bulbs and pair again. In the vast majority of instances, you'll be dealing with the same standard size of socket, so not much chance of getting the wrong kind of bulb.
Your phone has great support
Smart lights are one of the product categories with the most consistent support for smart home platforms like Google Home and Apple HomeKit. These are well-integrated with the phone you already have, giving you an easy way to issue voice commands to your lights. These mechanisms are in addition to native Android and iOS apps that often provide home screen widgets and advanced functions you'll need to dip into anyway during setup.

Read more
Apple adds new colors for the HomePod Mini to brighten your day
New 2021 Homepod Mini colors.

The HomePod Mini is an affordable entry-level device for HomeKit and Siri users, and now the product is available in three all-new colors: Yellow, orange, and blue. These colors make it easy to fit the HomePod into your décor, no matter what theme you're going for, and join the existing colors of black (or space gray) and white.

Combined with new Siri capabilities, like the ability to set reminders or play Apple Music anywhere in your home, the HomePod Mini is more appealing than it has ever been. With 360-degree audio, room-filling sound, and much more, you can bring Siri from your iPhone to your home to not only jam out to your favorite tunes, but to control your smart home. More details are forthcoming, so check back here soon.

Read more