Kick Off Summer Vibes With Our Favorite Outdoor Lights
String lights are not just for holidays anymore. You can use them to brighten up any area, including your garden. Twinkly's colored string lights are the best and come in various lengths, from 26 to 197 feet. You can set the brightness and color, but these lights top our best smart Christmas lights tree because of the premade effects. Twinkly's excellent app allows you to map the position of your lights to make the most of the animations. You even have the option of creating effects. You can sync multiple strings for larger areas, too.
The Generation II lights have a physical button for Bluetooth pairing and to switch between effects manually, but you can also control and schedule them from the app on your phone. You can add the Twinkly String Lights to Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or Google Home for voice controls. If you want party lights that react to the music, Twinkly sells a Music dongle ($30) that plugs in via USB.
With an IP44 rating, the Twinkly String Lights are fine with splashing water, so rain shouldn't be a problem, but they are probably best situated somewhere sheltered. The plug must be in a covered outdoor socket or weatherproof box. Twinkly also splits its string lights in two and has the power cord in the middle, which can be good or bad depending on where your socket is and how you plan to place them. If you want dense clumps of lights, I also love the Twinkly Cluster ($100) string lights.
Weatherproof Rating: IP44
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