OK, Speaker: How to Effectively Use Your Smart Home Controller

Engineered to do more than just rattle your house with your favorite music, smart speakers give you more control over your home now than ever before.

While voice-controlled appliances have changed the game through mobile-app connectivity, certain smart speaker models prove that you don’t need to shell out the big bucks for a WiFi-enabled kitchen suite or a smart laundry pair.

With just a smart speaker and your voice, you’ve already got a smart home controller on your hands. Set timers for your washer cycles, ask about unit conversions for food recipes, turn your lights off without reaching for your nightstand, open Netflix without a remote control—and more.

To reap the benefits of handsfree home living, check out our guide.

Smart speakers distinguish themselves from most standard wireless speakers by having a built-in virtual assistant. And depending on your device model, you might be voicing commands to Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or a product-specific virtual assistant.

For instance, Sonos smart speakers (including the Sonos One, Beam, Arc, and Move) already have Alexa preconfigured to handle your voice commands.

In the case that you prefer Google Assistant on one or more of these Sonos devices, connecting to another virtual assistant is easy. In the Sonos app, just be sure to select your speaker model from a list of compatible devices and have your pre-installed Google Assistant app detect your speaker and request permission to access and control it.

For the best of both worlds, the Sonos app even lets you switch between Alexa and Google Assistant across multiple devices.

After you’ve activated your virtual assistant on your smart-speaker system, use the wake phrase (“Alexa” or “Hey Google”) followed by a command or question. After a few practice rounds, you’ll find that having a smart home controller is like having your own butler. Over time, your virtual assistant will get to know your preferences for a more personable experience.

Now let’s get to the fun stuff.

“Alexa, show me movies with Ryan Gosling.” Yes, your voice-controlled speaker can do that.

In fact, the days of hunting down your TV remote are over. With a smart home controller, you can ask your smart soundbar to perform basic commands while you’re watching content—such as opening a streaming app, selecting a title, altering picture settings, playing, pausing, fast-forwarding, rewinding, and adjusting the volume.

If that’s not convenient enough, you can even ask Alexa to give you a synopsis of any movie along with answers to other innocuous questions like, “What is the IMDb rating for 'Fuller House'?” and “Who stars in the movie 'Interstellar'?”

Elevating your living room to a home theater starts with connecting your smart soundbar with a compatible TV.

While the Samsung Class Q80T QLED 4K UHD HDR Smart TV (QN65Q80TAFXZA and QN75Q80TAFXZA) comes with its own built-in assistant—hello, Bixby—you can still connect multiple voice assistants, including Alexa and Google Assistant, to quickly access and control your favorite content.

And just because you’re investing in a highly efficient smart home controller, that doesn’t mean you’re doomed to sacrificing sound quality in your speaker. The Sonos Arc Soundbar (ARC-BLK and ARC-WHT) brings all your entertainment to life with realistic, room-filling sound—thanks to Dolby Atmos. Tuned to perfection, this smart soundbar is similarly attuned to your requests, which comes in handy when your movie-buff friend challenges you with a trivia question.

Streamlining family dinner is easier when you’ve got a smart speaker. In addition to enabling you to cheerily sing along to your favorite music while you’re chopping, dicing, and slicing, your smart home controller can keep you from losing your momentum in the kitchen.

If you’re used to eyeing your roast beef in the oven, you no longer have to stop what you’re doing to start a timer or obsessively check on it. Ask your Sonos One voice-controlled smart speaker (ONEG2US1BLK) to set a timer so that you don’t have to abandon your prep station. You can also ask how much time is left on your timer so that you don’t even have to crane your neck to check the countdown on your microwave.

You’ve got a lot to gain from a virtual sous chef, including creating a shopping list and learning volume conversions (“how many teaspoons are in one tablespoon?”), ingredient substitutions, and basic recipes.

Routines are tough, both in terms of starting them and keeping to them. A voice-controlled speaker can be prompted to kickstart a series of actions to start and end your day on the right note.

“Alexa, good morning” can trigger your Sonos One smart speaker to give you a personalized news bulletin, read you the daily weather, go over your calendar, deliver the traffic report, and pump you up with your favorite upbeat songs from a music-streaming service of your choice.

In terms of controlling your smart home, “Alexa, bedtime” can enable other smart tech. By uttering these two words, you can turn off your smart lights, adjust the temperature on your smart thermostat, and start a white-noise playlist or meditation podcast on your smart home controller so that you can unwind comfortably and with ease.

Whether you’re a morning person or night owl, you’ll equally find that the possibilities are endless.

Your patio shouldn’t get to miss out on the fun. With an outdoor smart speaker, you can easily take the party outside for music-filled garden parties and afternoon BBQs. In case you didn’t know, you can ask your portable and weather-resistant Sonos Move smart speaker (Indoor Outdoor Set) to adjust the treble and bass to drown out ambient noise.

Not only that, but you can also enable your voice-controlled speaker to make announcements, such as “The burgers are ready!” And you can ask questions related to the outdoor tasks at hand, such as “What is a correct temperature for doneness for ground meat?” or “How often do I need to water my succulents?”

As you can see, handsfree control of your tech and home operations is possible with a smart speaker. Your voice-controlled Sonos speaker can become a smart home controller with the right questions and commands. To learn more about our selection of automation and control electronics, check out our catalog.

At Spencer’s TV & Appliance, we are always happy to help. Call us or visit any of our locations today!

Pro Tip: Integrate your Samsung TV with your Sonos speakers.