Comparison

Third Reality vs TUO Life

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Third Reality

Control your home's lights and switches remotely with smart devices. This app allows you to configure hubs, add smart switches and bulbs, group devices for easy control, and set lighting schedules. Voice assistant integration is also supported.

Highlights
  • Remote control of lights and switches
  • Configure smart home hubs
  • Add and manage smart switches and bulbs
  • Group devices for unified control
  • Create lighting schedules
  • Voice assistant integration (Alexa, Google Home)
Features
Read full description

THE SIMPLIEST PATH TO A SMARTER HOME Take complete control of your home or apartment’s switches and lights from anywhere with the Reality Series of Smart Home devices. RealityAdapter connects all your Third Reality devices to your home network RealitySwitch turns any existing switch into a smart switch Set lights to reflect your mood with SmartBulbs Use RealityApp to configure and control your Smart Home RealityApp FEATURES Configure RealityAdapter hub to communicate with your home network and connect all Third Reality devices Add, name and configure RealitySwitches and RealityBulbs Group multiple devices to control from your smartphone with one button Create timers to control lighting schedules Connect Amazon Alexa or Google Home voice assistants to manage all your devices with voice commands Apple Notes: The app utilizes Location Services to record the location of your Remote Plus when you add it to your account and also when you ring it. Continue use of GPS or Bluetooth running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.

About

TUO Life

This app helps improve sleep, energy, focus, and mood by controlling smart circadian lights. It uses patented technology to influence your body's natural rhythms, syncing your biological schedule with your daily activities for better health and well-being.

Highlights
  • Regulates circadian rhythm
  • Improves sleep quality
  • Boosts energy levels
  • Enhances focus and mood
  • Customizable schedules
  • Automatic light mode changes
Features
Read full description

Begin your journey to better sleep, more energized days, sharper focus and improved mood with TUO Circadian Smart Lighting. TUO is partnered with the University of Washington, one of the world's top research centers for vision and neuroscience. Scientists there have recently discovered amacrine cells in the eye. These highly light-sensitive cells are the cells that TUO's patented, industry-leading technology affects to influence your circadian rhythm. TUO is more effective than anything else on the market and is the only circadian light therapy product that works at normal brightness levels and reasonable distance. Put TUO bulbs in your bedroom to get exposure when first waking. Put TUO bulbs in your bathroom to get exposure during your normal morning routine. Put TUO bulbs in your kitchen, and make your family breakfast while getting exposure. Put TUO bulbs on your desk, and check email while taking in light. With TUO, you need to stay within six feet of your light during the majority of your Wake mode. After that, you don't need to worry. Just continue your daily routine, and get the light that you need. Artificial lighting isn't healthy. Our bodies receive signals from the lighting around us. These signals set our internal clocks and regulate when we naturally sleep and wake. When we're exposed to general home and work lighting, we don't get the signals that we need to keep our biological schedule synchronized with our daily schedule. Circadian rhythm disorders are problems that occur when your body's internal clock is out of sync with your environment. Symptoms include excessive sleepiness, insomnia, reduced alertness, impaired decision making, poor school/work performance, elevated stress, inability to meet social obligations, changes in appetite and gastrointestinal function, reduced cardiovascular performance, reduced libido, substance abuse, weight gain, high blood pressure and depression. Prolonged misalignment between your biological schedule and your daily schedule puts you at higher risk for heart disease, obesity, diabetes, gastrointestinal problems, neurodegenerative disorders including dementia, skin issues and more. TUO Circadian Smart Products synchronize your biological schedule to your daily schedule by providing the light signals your mind and body need throughout the day. The TUO Life App sets a customized schedule based on your age, chronotype and general wake and sleep times so that you can set it and forget it. TUO Circadian Smart Bulbs change to the right mode at the right time automatically and can be used in any room. Our morning WAKE mode will give you a boost of energy to kickstart your day. Our all-day ACTIVE mode will keep your focus sharp throughout the day. Our evening CALM mode will help you wind down and fall asleep naturally. GETTING STARTED Launch our app and click sign up to get started. Follow the instructions on the screen to walk through initial setup and add your bulbs. You'll be asked to allow the app permissions throughout the setup process. Make sure you allow all permissions as we won't be able to setup your bulbs without them. Add your family members so that they can benefit from TUO as well. When you add family members, our app generates a customized circadian schedule for them. You can give them app login rights or control bulbs on their behalf. You can also assign them rooms so that those rooms always run on their schedule. Add on/off schedules to fully automate your TUO experience. On/off schedules let your bulbs automatically come on and turn off throughout the day. These can be configured for individual rooms and can be different for different days of the week. This allows your lights to automatically come on when you want them to. Use the app to turn rooms and individual devices on and off. Change your light brightness and color temperature to match your preferences. Override your circadian modes at any time. How you use TUO is solely up to you.

Screenshots

Third Reality3 screens
TUO Life4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: TUO Life at 3.9 against Third Reality's 2.2. TUO Life also leads on review sentiment (35% vs 12%) and ratings volume (161 vs 26). Third Reality's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.6). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

TUO Life holds the better App Store score, 3.9 against 2.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: TUO Life has 161 ratings behind it against 26, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 12% of Third Reality's written reviews are positive against 35% of TUO Life's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Third Reality versus TUO Life: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThird RealityTUO Life
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.2 (26 ratings)3.9 (161 ratings) — better
Positive reviews11.8% of reviews35.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings26161 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size50 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperThird Reality, IncVERGEOPS, LLC

Customer experience

Third Reality

All ratings26 ratings
Positive30.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative69.2%
Written reviews17 reviews
Positive11.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative88.2%

TUO Life

All ratings161 ratings
Positive70.8%
Neutral5.0%
Negative24.2%
Written reviews51 reviews
Positive35.3%
Neutral7.8%
Negative56.9%

Bugs and requests

Third Reality

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

TUO Life

Reported bugs

59 issues
  • App glitches too often, requires restart
  • Lamp doesn’t turn on automatically
  • App loses connection to bulb, requires reset
  • App crashes
  • Bulbs are buggy
Show 54 more
  • App is clunky, functionally limited
  • Requires repeated logins
  • App functions a little slowly
  • Little glitches sometimes, light doesn't turn off when toggled
  • Default calm set to 25% always comes on at 100%
  • On/off schedules are buggy and don’t always work
  • App is not intuitive to use
  • Often does not sync or turn on bulbs after programming
  • App seems a little glitchy, requires going through steps twice
  • Bedroom room setup disappears from app
  • App looks like a template, complicated and limited customization
  • Doesn’t adjust to daylight savings automatically
  • Kelvin values don’t go below 2300
  • App menu pushes into phone status bar
  • Cannot delete a room once added
  • Cannot remove and re-add a bulb
  • Bulb becomes an expensive unscanable paperweight if account deleted
  • App not functioning, only allows turning light off
  • Interface does not properly fit on display size
  • Half the functions listed are not functional
  • Unable to set up profiles
  • Schedule is not working
  • Bulb turns on in the middle of the night
  • Bulb will not connect
  • Doesn’t keep any dimmed settings
  • Scheduling works but fade on/off does not
  • Light goes from 0 to 100 watts immediately instead of fading
  • App has issues connecting
  • App is very clunky and frustrating to use
  • Transitions between lighting modes are mostly pre-programmed
  • App has a mode for setting sleep and wake times but doesn’t track sunrise
  • Default settings do not work
  • Occasionally, light turns on full brightness out of nowhere
  • App is generally super glitchy and hard to use
  • Setup is a massive headache, requires 2.5GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
  • App/bulbs don't remember default color temp and brightness
  • App menu pushes into phone status bar, tricky to hit icons
  • Cannot delete a room once added
  • Cannot remove and re-add a bulb
  • Bulb becomes an expensive unscanable paperweight if account deleted
  • App not functioning, only allows turning light off
  • Interface does not properly fit on display size
  • Half the functions listed are not functional
  • Unable to set up profiles
  • Schedule is not working
  • Bulb turns on in the middle of the night
  • Bulb will not connect
  • Doesn’t keep any dimmed settings
  • Scheduling works but fade on/off does not
  • Light goes from 0 to 100 watts immediately instead of fading
  • App has issues connecting
  • App is very clunky and frustrating to use
  • Transitions between lighting modes are mostly pre-programmed
  • App has a mode for setting sleep and wake times but doesn’t track sunrise

Requested features

14 requests
  • Allow customization of wake-up light duration
  • Enable automatic adjustment to daylight savings
  • Redesign the app with a simpler interface
  • Allow saving and defaulting custom colors for specific times
  • Customize colors for 'calm' mode
Show 9 more
  • Add red light function for night use
  • Allow Kelvin values below 2300
  • Track sunrise/sunset for wake-up times
  • Integrate with HomeKit
  • Allow manual adjustment of color temperature and illumination intensity to be saved
  • Add option for user-set programmed gradual decrease/increase in color temperature and intensity
  • Make app accessible via Bluetooth alone
  • Allow users to delete rooms and re-add bulbs easily
  • Improve app to prevent bulbs from becoming paperweights

In-app purchases

None

Third Reality

No in-app purchases

None

TUO Life

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Third Reality free?
Third Reality is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is TUO Life free?
TUO Life is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Third Reality or TUO Life?
TUO Life is rated higher. Third Reality averages 2.2 out of 5 from 26 ratings, while TUO Life averages 3.9 from 161 ratings.
Do Third Reality or TUO Life have ads?
Neither Third Reality nor TUO Life shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Third Reality or TUO Life?
Third Reality ships an update every 3 months, and TUO Life every 3 months. Most recently, Third Reality was updated on October 5, 2026 and TUO Life on October 18, 2026.

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