As the days get shorter and the weather gets cooler, the eerie chill of Halloween hangs in the air. The best smart home devices can help your home fit the part. From spooky smart lights to motion-activated candy dispensers, here’s some inspiration to make your smart home a hit with the neighbors.
These connected gadgets can be scheduled and controlled remotely, so you can have a scare whether you’re at home or heading out to shop for the best in Boo Basket. As the holidays approach, read on to find out how to make your life easier with smart home gear below.
Brighten up your nights with smart lights
The best smart lights can add some serious curb appeal to your home. Set a routine for your outdoor smart lights to automatically turn on in your chosen color at sunset. Most smart light apps let you control individual segments and bulbs, and also offer preset animated themes. For example, Govee’s permanent outdoor smart lights flare orange and purple lights in a Halloween setting.
Feel free to steal a play from my book and use a smart light app to sync effects and make your LEDs dance to your music. If you’ve never seen them jump home to the beat of Scary Spooky Skeletons, this could be the year to change that. Use smart walkways and string lights to draw attention to your garden, and add tombstones and skeletons to transform it into a cemetery. Pair the entire setup with one of the best smart speakers to play spooky sound effects and songs all season long and everything will be fine.
Control your decorations with smart plugs
Outdoor smart plugs are an affordable and easy way to transform your existing plug-in décor into a smart one. You can schedule inflatables, string lights, animatronics, and even fog machines to turn on or off at specific times. If you want to start them while you’re away, you can use remote power control to start them from your office and return to your haunted house. It is very versatile as it can be used all year round.
Set up motion sensors and motors to dispense candy
Using motion detectors, motors, and smart plugs, you can hand out candy from a bucket every time someone approaches your door. The sensor can tell the smart plug that powers the motor to temporarily turn it on or off. Create this routine by creating a trigger that turns on the motor when the sensor detects movement.
This will be a DIY project that can be approached in several ways. I’ve seen creative Redditors use a hard-wired power drill at low speed connected to an auger that pushes candy down a chute. Some people connect the bottom door of a candy dispenser to a linear actuator that pulls the door open and drops the candy into the box.
Greet trick-or-treaters with spooky Halloween tones and quick replies
Ring Video You can customize the sound of your doorbell to brighten up your entryway. The Ring app lets you choose from a variety of tones, including bats, ghosts, howls, screams, creepy organs, witches’ laughs, monster growls, spooky laughs, cat shrieks, door creaks, and more. If you want to take it a step further, the doorbell also supports custom quick responses that you can use when heading to the door. These include:
- “The fire burns, the cauldron bubbles, leave a message on the double.”
- “Trick-or-treat, sniff my feet and leave a message on the beep.”
- ”[Howl] I’m there! ”
- “I’ll be right there to eat…I mean, say hi.”
- “Tell me what brought you here…or I’ll cast a spell on you!”
- “Earthlings, we’re right there.”
- “The spirit has awakened! Please leave a message.”
- “Wait a minute! Please put down the broom.”
Create a jump scare with smart blinds and curtains
If you have a window in the front and fancy curtains or blinds, you can place scary props behind it that pop out when trick-or-treaters approach. If I had the money to buy my neighbors’ life-sized Jason Voorhees statues, they would have a field day slowly revealing themselves to unsuspecting trick-or-treaters. Plus, it’s a great way to make sure kids only take one piece from the candy bowl when you’re away.
Simply bind your smart curtains or blinds to your motion sensor in the Routines or Automation section of your smart home app. When the sensor detects movement, you can open the curtains, a person will appear in the window, and after a few seconds you can return the curtains to the closed position.
