How to “listen” to your home with connected speakers

While connected speakers are very useful every day for some pretty serious tasks, they can also let you do some really fun stuff. Here, for example, is how to “listen”to your house.

Whether you have a Google Home, an Amazon Echo, or an Apple HomePod, a connected speaker can be used for many things, more or less serious. Whether it’s Halloween or any theme party, these are very interesting gadgets. Just like you can ask Alexa to set you a timer when you’re cooking or ask Google for the weather, you can also use connected speakers to haunt your home if you know how.

Some of the Halloween features are natively integrated into the speakers, the developers seem to have fun adding these features to their products without revealing them. Some ideas require additional devices such as a second speaker or connected equipment, but it’s definitely worth the effort.

Speak through the speaker

If you have a speaker connected, you can use it to scare your guests remotely. All connected speakers have this feature; Amazon has Drop In, Google Home has broadcast capability, and HomePod has Intercom. The effect is the same; say your scary message aloud and it will be broadcast to the connected speaker of your choice.

You place your guests in a room with very limited lighting, a small flashing light… for them to come up and yell through a connected speaker strategically placed in the room. or you hide a loudspeaker in front of your front door to scare the young – and not so young – who will come and take your candy from you!

Making mood playlists

Nothing says Halloween like Halloween music. This will put your guests in the mood right away.

You can prepare them yourself, or get one ready-made and play it on a connected speaker. You can also just ask the speaker to play a Halloween playlist. The options are slightly different depending on the streaming services.

Ask your digital voice assistant to change the light

If you really want to get your whole house in the Halloween mood, you need to think about smart light bulbs and other lighting fixtures. Philips Hue or other. You can then change the colors on request and give them orange, purple and red hues, the perfect atmosphere.

And if you can obviously control everything from your smartphone, it’s much more fun to do it through a connected speaker. “Ok Google, turn on the orange light in the living room.”Guaranteed effect!

Ask your pregnant woman to tell a scary story

Did you know that you can ask your pregnant woman to tell you a scary story? Some last several minutes. And if you ask Google Home to tell you “something scary”, the assistant will tell you something half joke, half scary story.

When a connected speaker tries to stand up

Speaking of jokes, your speaker, be it Google or Alexa, can also tell you jokes related to the season. It’s perfect for Halloween. Siri, on the other hand, knows how to joke, but there is nothing Halloween in her repertoire.

Scary sounds and screams

Halloween music can cheer you up, as can a playlist with the right sounds. Turn your living room into a scary room full of screams and all. Ask Google Home or Amazon Echo to scare you. You can even make the Amazon Echo scream.

Scare those who come to ask for candy with your pregnant

Most plug-in speakers are quite compact. Use this to your advantage. Hide one outside, behind a pot, plant, or decoration. Then use one of the tactics discussed earlier; yell through the fence when a group approaches, or politely remind them not to take a handful of candy.