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Can you use Alexa and desktop screen sync at the same time?

Yes. They are two separate paths to the same lights and neither disables the other. But they can talk over each other, and it helps to know which one wins.

Two different roads to the same bulb

Alexa, Google Home and the Govee Home app reach your lights through Govee's cloud: your voice command goes to Amazon, then to Govee, then back down to the device over the internet. It works from anywhere and needs your Govee account.

Desktop screen sync goes straight across your own network. The app sends colour frames many times a second directly to the device, with no account and no internet involved. That is the only way to get latency low enough to follow a picture — a round trip through two clouds could never keep up.

Enabling LAN Control does not switch the cloud off. Your Alexa routines, schedules and voice commands keep working exactly as before.

The short version

Both can be set up at once. Nothing needs to be uninstalled or unlinked.
Whichever sent the most recent command wins, because the light just does what it is told.
An Alexa command during an active sync will visibly interrupt it.
Voice is better for on, off, and brightness. Sync is better for colour.

What actually happens when both are active

Say screen sync is running and you ask Alexa to turn the lights blue. The cloud command arrives, the light turns blue — and then the next sync frame arrives a fraction of a second later and paints it whatever the screen says. You will see a flicker of blue, then nothing.

“Turn the lights off” is more decisive: the device stops responding to colour, and depending on the model it may also drop out of the realtime mode that sync depends on. If the lights go dark mid-film and do not come back on their own, stop the sync and start it again. That re-enters realtime mode cleanly.

How to use both without them fighting

Use voice for state, the app for colour. Alexa to turn the room on or off and set overall brightness; sync to decide what colour things are while you are watching.
Stop the sync before a scene. If you want an Alexa scene to hold, end the sync session first, otherwise the next frame overwrites it.
Keep sync-driven lights out of routines that run while you watch. A sunset routine firing at 9pm will fight your film. Move those lights to a different Alexa group.

Voice control on macOS without Alexa

If what you actually want is to say “start screen sync” out loud, Alexa cannot do it — it controls the lights, not the app. GLanSync registers Siri Shortcuts and glansync:// automation URLs on macOS instead, so you can start a mode, set a colour, change brightness or stop everything by voice or from a Shortcut, without touching the cloud at all.

Do I still need the Govee Home app?

Yes, for two things: enabling LAN Control in the first place, and firmware updates. Day to day you can leave it closed. Screen sync does not need it running, does not need you signed in, and does not need the Govee Developer API key some tutorials mention — that is a separate cloud service with rate limits and nothing to do with local control.

Download GLanSync — free during launch

Check your model supports LAN realtime control first — voice control working is no guarantee that sync will.