I’ve a couple of LIFX bulbs in my home. I paired them directly to the Apple HomeKit Home app and never bothered with LIFX‘a app. They’ve been 99% reliable for me for about three years now. I don’t know if I’m lucky or that avoiding their app was worth it.
In my experience this is more reliable, but there's something off about the color temperature selections available within the Home app. LIFX bulbs have less than great color to begin with (their warm whites feel sickly and sallow), but it has the same problem with Hue. I end up setting colors within the Hue or LIFX app and then going "the color that is currently set" in Home. So not using their app has drawbacks too.
