Use these smart home tricks to create the perfect haunted Halloween.

Are you and your house ready for Halloween? You’re likely already seeing many homes decorated with extra goblins and ghouls. Halloween is just a few days away. You can create a haunted house vibe at your home using your smart devices.

From creating special lighting to spooky sounds with your smart devices, we’ve compiled a handful of simple ways you can bring a haunted house vibe to life at your home that will surely delight trick-or-treaters.

Setting the scene

Lighting, inside or out, can drastically change an average home into a haunted house.

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Dimming the lights inside and outside is a good start, but incorporating smart lights can help you unlock a new level of creepiness. 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 conjure up an eerie vibe with random dimming and flickering, but adding color can really help create an ambiance that will raise the hairs on the backs of visitors’ necks. Many of the top brands, like Philips Hue, Govee and LIFX, have preset scenes that use greens, purples, reds and more, plus the option to turn on random flickers.

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

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Getting your lighting configured is a great start, but when you pair smart sensors with the 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 buying 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 act as a hub, like the Amazon Echo (4th Gen), you can use third-party Zigbee devices such as this one from Thirdreality.
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Add sounds from the unknown

Smart speakers are an excellent co-pilot for your Halloween festivities.

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Halloween is when your smart speaker can really start to shine. Amazon Echo and Google Nest speakers and displays are able to play almost any song that you ask for. These devices also have features that are designed to help you celebrate Halloween. For example, you can ask Google to “get spooky” and get an hour of “spooktacular music and sounds.” Here are some other phrases that you can use with your Google Nest.

“What does a werewolf’s sound like?” It’s fun to hear the howl of a werewolf for yourself, even though it may seem obvious that Google would answer.

“OK, Google, boo. Google replies with the question “Were You a Ghost All This Time? I should’ve 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 will give you some fun choices like singing you a Halloween song, 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.Chris Wedel/CNET
• For Amazon Echo users, you can ask Alexa to play creepy sound effects, tell a scary story or even share Halloween jokes. This is a good way to give your kids ideas for jokes they can use when trick-or treating. Amazon has many Skills that you can use to make your Echo devices more spooky. One of these is Halloween Sounds Skill
• . This Halloween Sound Skill

will add extra creepy sounds to your home, especially if they are coming from your

Jack Skellington Echo Dot.

Whether using Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or both, these ideas can help you create a more eerie atmosphere in your home. There will be more ways to make your smart devices part of the fun as technology continues to improve. Don’t forget to use your smart home security devices. They are also a great way to create a spooky feel for Halloween.

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