To experience all that smart LED lights can offer, you'll want to start with ones that are entirely customizable, offering the full spectrum of available colors. These bulbs are way more expensive than any light bulb you've probably bought in your life. So, you're going to want to choose a brand that can satisfy all your smart lighting needs. You might also prefer ones that can work all around the house without the need for a separate hub.
Not only are the best smart light bulbs more energy-efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs and even compact fluorescent bulbs, but you'll feel like Tony Stark walking through your home, controlling the lighting with just your voice.
Google Home is one of the tentpole home assistant platforms, and all of the bulbs listed here pair perfectly with the best Google Home compatible devices available. All you need to ask yourself as a shopper is how many bulbs you need for your home and how much are you willing to spend?
Full-feature smart lights with Google
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Best overall
Philips is the leading manufacturer of wireless LED smart bulbs for many good reasons. I've been using Philips Hue bulbs for years because they are easy to set up and are the most consistent quality bulbs on the market. These bulbs can be controlled with an optional Hue Hub, Bluetooth, or Zigbee. The Hub lets you make the most of these bulbs, but it's nice that you don't need one to get started.
Best affordable bulb
I love Philips Hue bulbs, but they can be prohibitive because they're super expensive. WiZ Connected was acquired by Philips's parent company Signify and is designed to be completely separate from the Hue ecosystem. These bulbs don't require a hub at all and, instead, connect directly to your home's Wi-Fi network. They're also perfect for pairing with any smart home service, not just Google Home, and maintain the quality you expect from the Philips brand without the expected price.
Best strip light
Govee makes two sizes of the T2, one for 55 to 65-inch TVs and the other for 75 to 85-inch. The Govee Immersion LED Strip Lights can dynamically change the color and brightness of each LED on the strip based on what's happening on your TV. It does this with a dual-camera setup that sits either above or below the display, and works with any content. In our testing, this upgrade over the previous version is impressive. Integration with Google Home means you can make routines that change lighting to set the mood for movie watching or game playing. You don't even need a hub to connect to your home's Wi-Fi.
Best hub-free bulb
GE Cync offers the best value for budget-conscious consumers looking to invest in smart bulbs, because you can get your smart lighting going without the need for a hub. These bulbs offer great control via the Cync app or through Google Home. I like using the best GE Cync bulbs due to the excellent saturated colors and the wide range of white temperatures available.
Best Matter-compatible bulbs
These Matter-compatible bulbs from Linkind use Wi-Fi for connectivity with support for Google Home, Alexa, Siri, SmartThings, and more so you can even switch ecosystems if you want. If you have a Google Home speaker, Nest Hub, or Nest Wifi Pro or another Matter-compatible hub, you have all the tech you need.
Best customizable light panels
Do the Nanoleaf light panels fit the description of a smart bulb? That's up for debate. But no doubt, these are the coolest smart lighting kits you can control with Google Assistant. This kit includes the Rhythm Module and 17 panels so you can mount a customized light fixture on the wall of any room in your home that will dance along with pulsing color to the ambience of the space.
Best LED light strips
These 16-foot LED light strips are the latest from Govee and are the most impressive light strips we've tested. Each strip includes a dedicated on/off switch that also lets you change colors without your phone or smart speaker, and by using the Govee Home app. There's lots of customization available, and you can link your Govee account to Google Home to control it all with your voice.
Best smart lamp
Whether you want a handheld light for scary trips to the fridge in the middle of the night or just enough ambience to see your wine glasses at night, this Portable Table Lamp from Philips Hue is a great pick. On a low setting, the built-in battery can last up to 48 hours, and it charges with the included base. No messing with finicky charging cables. You can still control it like any other Hue app, with a full range of colors and up to 370 lumens of brightness.
Best multi-colored bulb
LiFX's newest bulbs are much smaller than the older models, sporting the mini-bulb moniker and emitting 800 lumens of brightness. Each bulb can customize your spaces with 16 million colors and 1,000 shades of warm to cool whites. No additional hardware is required to get things set up with Google Assistant as each bulb connects directly to your Wi-Fi network.
Dimmable white smart bulbs with Google
Let's be real. Not every smart bulb in your home needs to cycle through 16 million different colors. And they can still be fully dimmable and react to your voice commands.
You can save some money buying white LED smart bulbs for the more mundane areas of your house, like hallways and bathrooms and save the fancier color bulbs for the areas where you entertain your guests. There are dimmable white smart bulbs available for each smart hub ecosystem and many options that only require a Wi-Fi connection.
Best dimmable white bulb
As long as you already own a Philips Hue Bridge, you can start adding smart bulbs to any room in your house. With this four-pack of dimmable white bulbs, you're able to schedule and automate lighting to fit your daily needs. On vacation? Make it appear like someone is home while you're out by scheduling lights in different rooms to turn on and off throughout the evening.
Best hub-fee white bulbs
WiZ Connected is the other brand from Philips' parent company, Signify, and works just as well with Google Home as the Philips Hue line. The big difference here is that these bulbs tie directly into your home's Wi-Fi network instead of using a hub like Hue does. That means the setup is more straightforward, and you don't have a single point of failure. Not only that, but the cost of entry is much, much lower. A win, win, win, really.
Best mini bulbs
LIFX bulbs don't require a hub, just a reliable connection to the Wi-Fi network. This bulb is comparable to a 60W bulb and is perfect for smaller lamps or lighting fixtures. The white variation offers the best value for your money, but there are mini color bulbs or day and dusk bulbs that can change the color and warmth of the lighting based on the time of day. These are sold individually and perfect for lamps on bedside tables.
Best budget white bulbs
For those of you who are okay with standard white, dimmable smart bulbs and don't want to spend a fortune, Kasa Smart bulbs are a good pick. They offer the added benefit of no hub — only a reliable connection to your home's Wi-Fi network is required. Each bulb is priced affordably, which makes it easy to pick up lots without breaking the bank.
Best multi-pack white bulbs
If you already have a Sengled hub — or even a SmartThings or Wink hub — you can add eight bulbs to your network for the best price per bulb that you will find. That's a heck of a deal and a great option if you desire to replace every bulb in your home with a voice-controlled smart bulb without spending hundreds of dollars.
Best classic style white bulb
Filament-style bulbs can provide the perfect look for a hanging light fixture or even a lamp. Unlike older versions, this bulb can be tuned to your preferred temperature and is dimmable. It supports Matter for easy setup with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It's compatible with Google, Alexa, Siri, and even Samsung SmartThings.
Don't be afraid to mix and match
The best part about having so many smart light bulbs available that all work with Google Assistant is that you can have a hub set up and some individual Wi-Fi bulbs all running on your home network and still control everything using just your voice. Google has done a great job at making the process of adding smart lights to Google Home a relatively straightforward one.
Our top recommendation is the Philips Hue Starter kit, which includes everything you'll need to build your dream smart home. Hue certainly costs more than other brands, but the Philips Hue app and all its integrations make it simply smarter than other options.
These bulbs tie in perfectly with Google Home, and you can use Google Assistant to control every aspect of your lights, including powerful zone controls. The Philips Hue hub uses an ultra-reliable Zigbee wireless connection, which is independent of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. That means your bulbs will work properly even if your home Internet connection is out or your phone doesn't have a perfect signal.
Matter support has also made its way to a few models, which makes setup and control even easier. If you have a Mattter-compatible hub like a Google Home, Google Home Mini, Nest Hub, or Nest WiFi Pro, you already have what you need.
But just because you have some Hue bulbs doesn't mean you can't mix and match brands to your heart's content. Google Assistant works with every brand on here, including the ability to change colors, dim the bulbs, and add them to routines. Bulbs like WiZ Connected are way cheaper than Hue without sacrificing much in the way of features, while accent pieces like the Nanoleaf Rhythm Smarter Kit add an extra flair to your home that simply can't be achieved by any normal-style lightbulb.
