Last minute smart home tips for the perfect haunted Halloween

Halloween is less than a week away, which means you’ll see a lot of houses with some extra ghouls and goblins. Whether you’ve had your decorations for weeks or still need to work on them, your smart home devices are perfect for quick and effective spooky effects.

From creating special lighting to making spooky sounds with your smart devices, we’ve rounded up a handful of easy ways to bring a haunted house atmosphere to life in your home that’s sure to delight trick-or-treaters.

Create the framework

The perfect way to make your home spooky is with special lighting, as a brightly lit home usually doesn’t give off a spooky atmosphere. While dimming the lights indoors and outdoors is a good start, installing the best smart lights can help you reach new levels of spookiness.

Any smart light can help create an eerie atmosphere by randomly dimming and flickering, but adding color can really help create an atmosphere that will make the hairs on the backs of visitors stand on end. Many of the top brands like Philips Hue, Govee and LIFX have preset scenes with greens, purples, reds and more, as well as the option to turn on random flickering.

Of course, your spooky home will be even more eye-catching if you incorporate outdoor string lights into the mix.

Configuring your lighting is a good start, but pairing smart sensors with the lights allows you to create automations for Alexa or Google Assistant. These automations allow you to schedule when certain 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 Philips Hue And Govee. Or if you have a hub or a smart speaker that can act as a hub, such as: For example, Amazon Echo (4th generation), you can use third-party Zigbee devices like this one Third reality.

Add sounds from the unknown

Your smart speaker can really shine on Halloween. In addition to answering questions, Amazon Echo and Google Nest smart speakers and displays can play just about any song you want. But these devices can also help you get into the Halloween spirit, with built-in features designed specifically for the spooky season.

For example, if you say, “Hey Google, get spooky” on a Google speaker, you’ll get what Google calls “spooky sounds and music” for an hour.

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 react here, it’s still fun to hear the howl itself.
• “Okay, Google, boo.” 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 get an interactive story in the style of your own adventure with spooky sound effects.
• “OK, Google, happy Halloween.” Your Google Assistant gives you some fun options like: B. singing a Halloween song, a riddle and more.

Amazon Echo users can ask Alexa to play spooky sound effects, tell a spooky story, or even share Halloween jokes. (This is also a great way for your kids to get ideas for their jokes to use while trick-or-treating!) Amazon offers lots of different skills, including little apps for your Echo Halloween skillswhich you can enable to make your Echo devices extra spooky. The Halloween sounds ability is great for adding extra spooky sound effects to your house, especially when they come out of the house Jack Skellington Echo Dot

Whether you use Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, these ideas can add an extra layer of eeriness to your home. As technology continues to get smarter, there are sure to be more ways to keep your smart devices in on the fun for years to come. Additionally, don’t forget about your smart home’s security devices. This is another great tool to help you create a spooky Halloween feel.