Spooky season is almost here, with Halloween quickly approaching, which means you'll be seeing lots of houses with a few extra ghouls and goblins. Whether or not these types of decor are your style, your smart home could be the weird secret ingredient you've been looking for.
From creating special lighting to spooky sounds with your smart devices, we've compiled some simple ways to bring a haunted house vibe to life in your home that's sure to delight trick-or-treaters.
Scenario
Lighting, whether indoor or outdoor, can drastically transform an ordinary home into a haunted house.
The perfect way to make your house spooky is with some special lighting, as a well-lit house usually doesn't give off a spooky feeling. While dimming the lights inside and out is a good start, incorporating the best smart lights can help you unlock a new level of creepiness.
Any smart light can help create an eerie vibe with random dimming and flickering, but adding color can really help create an ambiance that will make the hairs on the back of your visitors' necks stand up. Many top brands, like Philips Hue, Govee, and LIFX, have preset scenes that use greens, purples, reds, and more, as well as the option to turn on random flickers.
Of course, your spooky house will be even more eye-catching if you incorporate outdoor string lights into the mix.
Setting up your lighting is a great start, but by pairing smart sensors with your lights, you can create automations for Alexa or Google Assistant. These automations will allow you to schedule when specific lights turn on and off or respond to motion sensors.
There are many purchasing options for these types of sensors. You can buy ones from the same brand as your lights, like Philips hue and Govee. Or, if you have a hub or smart speaker that can double as a hub, like the Amazon Echo (4th Gen), you can use third-party Zigbee devices, like this one from Third reality.
Add sounds from the unknown
Smart speakers are a great co-pilot for your Halloween festivities.
Halloween is when your smart speaker can really start to shine. In addition to answering questions, Amazon Echo and Google Nest smart speakers and displays can play just about any song you ask for. But these devices can also help you get into the Halloween spirit with built-in features created specifically for the spooky season.
For example, in a Google Speaker, if you say “Hey Google, get scary,” you’ll get an hour of what Google calls “scary sounds and music.”
Here are additional phrases you can use on your Google Nest:
- “What does a werewolf sound like?” While it may seem obvious how Google would respond here, hearing the howl for yourself is still fun.
- “OK, Google, love.” Google responds with “Were you a ghost this whole time? I should have known,” and some fun sound effects.
- “Hey Google, tell me a scary story.” Here you'll get an interactive choose-your-own-adventure style story, complete with spooky sound effects.
- “OK, Google, happy Halloween.” Your Google Assistant offers some fun options, like singing a Halloween song, a riddle, and more.
The Amazon Echo Dot with Clock is a great smart speaker, but the addition of a clock for simple visual cues is fantastic.
For Amazon Echo users, you can ask Alexa to play spooky sound effects, tell a scary story, or even share Halloween jokes. (This is also a great way for your kids to get ideas for jokes to use while trick-or-treating!) Amazon offers lots of different abilities like little apps for your Echo, including Halloween Skillsthat you can turn on to make your Echo devices even scarier. THE Halloween Sounds Skill It's great for adding extra spooky sound effects to your home, especially when they come from the Jack Skellington Echo Ponto.
Whether you're using Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, these ideas can add an extra layer of weirdness to your home. As technology gets smarter and smarter, there are sure to be additional ways to get your smart devices to join in the fun in the years to come. Also, don't forget about your smart home security devices. This is another great tool to help you achieve a spooky Halloween feel.
