At home over the last couple of years we have had an influx of smart speakers into our lives, we arguably came to the party a little late that many others but since we first got started with them, we haven’t looked back. The range of speakers has, of course, changed over the years, but we have used both Google and Amazon in our house and they have developed in being part of our lives.

I’ve been around technology for many years both in my work and home life, so our natural progression towards these were obvious, however, it didn’t hit a grove until we placed one in the kitchen, we opted for Amazon Echo 2nd/3rd Gen at the time, Boo especially was very cautious about how we actually use it, what were the benefits etc, we were already prime members and had been using an old school DAB radio in the kitchen.

So as we started to use the various interactions we realised the benefits of having them, this then developed into other uses around the house, so much so that a smart speaker is now in 5 of our rooms in various different ways, I even added it to my Sonos Beam surround system, below is 5 different ways that we use the Smart speakers

Music

Part of our Amazon Prime we have the Amazon Music service, Boo and I are music fans and often have music being played in the back round for many years, Roo is also a huge music fan (though she listens to more modern-day stuff), so she also loves listening to music while doing stuff, like baking and cooking, much like we do. You can see how radio, Spotify, Apple, Amazon and others have adapted to these as there now often advertised with whatever there doing, you can attach things like the music services to your Smart device like Google Mini, and for us the option to play almost any song we want and could remember is fantastic.

Shopping

Some people use to shop, we have done very little with Smart speaker though I understand why and how people would use it, items that we have bought through via Amazon Prime will be notified on the speaker and let us know when it’s being delivered etc, which can be useful things.
Xmas FunSomething the kids really enjoyed was the interaction of asking “how many days till Xmas” to Alexa, and she would respond, but there would also be a message from Santa! which for kids is amazing! Piglet especially loved this, and just before school, we would ask every day in December.

Jokes and crazyiness

Carrying on the fun theme, Boo, Tigger, Roo and Piglet all like interacting with the smart speakers in a funny way, so Jokes would often get asked, these can be funny and silly, and then there are the Fart noises, the amount of times they ave asked for some fart noises is ridiculous but that’s because they love it, and sometimes it’s nice to be a bit silly.

Information

As ever with any smart device you can ask for info, much like Google, and other search engines, I actually often use it for weather forecasts and results in sport etc, in the kitchen, I will ask for a Recipe or a question about times with Baking and cooking etc, these can be very useful and if your busy but you need the info it’s excellent, both Roo and we now use the alarm function and reminder function, these can be great for Alarms in the morning but also reminders while we are cooking, they have become and a big part of our lives.

Overall

So for us, they have slowly become a part of our lives, with them being used daily, and several times in that day, as the technology advances across the various companies I can only see them being more into our lives, for me, Google and Amazon still set the standard with these, I realise some people don’t like them, are hesitant to have them, that’s fine, but for us we like them, is there anything that we are missing with them? its tips that you use them for that we don’t know about?

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Google Home Nest Mini