Every light in the house, on the same beat.
DiscoBeat listens to whatever is playing in the room and makes every smart light you own pulse with it, in time, whatever the brand: Hue, Govee, LIFX, Nanoleaf, WLED, Twinkly, Yeelight and WiZ in one show, each driven over its own fastest local path.
A camera calibrator measures every bulb's real delay, so they all land on the beat together — and it tells you honestly which of your bulbs will never feel tight.
No account needed. The microphone and camera are analysed on your phone and never recorded or sent. No analytics, no ads — see the privacy policy.
How it works
- Find every light. DiscoBeat looks for lights on your home Wi-Fi and lists them by brand. No account, and no pairing beyond what the maker insists on: the link button on a Hue Bridge, a long press on a Nanoleaf.
- Measure each one. Point your phone's camera at the room and the calibrator flashes each light in turn, timing how long it really takes to respond. Every bulb has its own delay, and one lag slider is wrong for all of them but one. You get a verdict per light: tight, or loose, and why.
- One show. Press play. Each light is told early by exactly its own measured delay, so a Govee strip, a Hue bulb and a Nanoleaf panel change on the same beat instead of rippling across the room.
What each brand can do
Not every light can follow the music equally, and DiscoBeat says so rather than making the slow ones look broken. Each brand is labelled by the best its local path allows; your own calibration then shows what your bulbs actually do.
| Brand | Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Philips Hue | Streaming | Needs a Hue Bridge and an entertainment area, set up in the Hue app |
| Nanoleaf | Streaming | |
| LIFX | Streaming | |
| WLED | Streaming | |
| Govee | Beat | Needs LAN Control switched on in the Govee app. A faster direct mode is in Labs |
| Twinkly | Streaming | Labs |
| Yeelight | Streaming | Labs |
| WiZ | Beat | Labs |
| HomeKit | Ambient | Changes with the song's sections, not its beats — HomeKit cannot go faster |
Streaming follows the music continuously. Beat fires on beats and colour changes. Ambient moves with the song's sections. Tiers are what each brand's path allows, not a promise about your bulbs: so far only Hue has been through our own rate test, and the others go through it as the hardware arrives. The calibrator is the number that counts.
The honest limits
- On iPhone, microphone mode runs in the foreground. iOS does not let an app keep listening in the background, so the app stays open and the screen stays on while a show plays. Songs you own as files can play with the screen locked.
- Rehearsed shows need files you own. A rehearsed show is worked out from a song file on your phone before it plays. DiscoBeat cannot read Spotify or Apple Music; for those, it listens through the microphone like everything else.
- Some brands are Labs. Twinkly, Yeelight, WiZ and Govee's direct mode use protocols their makers do not publish. They are off until you switch on Labs, they can break when a maker updates its firmware, and any of them is removed if its maker asks.
- Lights must be on the same Wi-Fi as your phone. DiscoBeat talks to them directly; nothing goes through a cloud, and it cannot reach lights in another house.
- Flashing lights. Strobe effects are capped at 3 flashes a second by default. Lifting the cap takes a warning first. If anyone in the room has photosensitive epilepsy or is sensitive to flashing light, leave the cap on.
Price
Free
- Every brand, mixed in one show — Labs brands too, behind the Labs switch
- Up to 4 lights in one room
- Calibrate 2 lights
- Microphone mode
Pro — $9.99, once
- Unlimited lights and rooms
- Calibrate every light
- Rehearsed shows for songs you own
- Play your own song files, screen locked
No subscription, and never a brand behind a paywall. Pro is bought once through the App Store or Google Play.
Questions
Setup help is on the support page. Anything else: email support@discobeat.app. A person reads it.