You may be amazed at how much your smart gadgets can do for you if you have family, friends, or other visitors staying at your house for a few days. Your smart home is prepared to assist with anything from setting up playlists and soft wake-up times to controlling your locks and Wi-Fi.
Take a break from all the preparations for your visitors and implement a few simple adjustments to ensure that everyone has a great day.
See also: The Top 7 Most Typical Home Security Errors to Avoid
The house has a Vivint video doorbell installed outside.
Your smart guest experience doesn’t end with doorbell chimes.
CNET 1/Jared DiPane
1. Install a doorbell chime for the season.
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A feature that allows users to switch to seasonal themes, such as a selection of holiday sounds for the end of the year, is frequently included in video doorbell settings. Vivint excels at this, offering a wide variety of seasonal music selections on its video doorbell. Holiday alternatives are now available for Google Nest and Eufy doorbells.
2. Switch off your cameras inside.
Visitors and cameras don’t get along. Pull down the shutters on your smart displays, nanny cams, and inside cameras (or disable them via settings, etc.) to make everyone feel safer. Assure everyone that their privacy is protected while they are there. You can leave outdoor cameras and video doorbells running.
Close-up of individual using mobile phone to adjust smart light at home.
It’s simple to program smart lights to dim and brighten according to the time of day.
Getty
3 via Oscar Wong. Set your lights to awaken gently in the morning.
Today’s smart lights feature settings to turn on at specified times of day or at dawn, and at a preset brightness (and even color temperature). Some even enable you to gradually raise the brightness over an hour or so. Use these settings to create a simulated dawn in key places of the home to inspire visitors to wake and shine at the proper moments. It’s particularly useful if everyone has to get up in the morning for a special activity — but be sure to give coffee too.
4. Provide smart lock passes to individuals for a special day out.
Numerous tricks are possible with a smart lock, such as remote control operation and auto-locking if left unlocked. While those are great for entertaining, many locks let you create temporary passes, including using popular apps like Apple Home, and send them to your guests’ phones if you want to add even more options. In this manner, they can arrive and depart according to their own plans, and the door remains locked when nobody is using it.
The Aqara app’s control card and lock status.
The Aqara app condenses a large number of smart lock options into a product card that is very easy to understand.
Tyler Lacoma/CNET
5. Raise the temperature on the smart thermostat a little.
Although it’s a terrific method to conserve energy, keeping the thermostat setting temperatures a little lower in the winter isn’t necessarily a sign of a good host. Consider logging into your thermostat app and raising up temps a few degrees, particularly at night and the middle of the day, so everyone remains comfortable.
6. Disarm your home security system throughout the day
Schedules for home security systems often require activating the system after everyone has left the house throughout the day. Over the holidays, it isn’t the best option, particularly if you have visitors. We advise configuring your home security system to disarm throughout the day rather than turning off individual sensors.
When the system is disarmed, you may still get critical notifications from gadgets like package-recognizing video doorbells or leak detectors. Additionally, you may leave the night mode on, which typically permits movement but keeps a tight eye on windows and doors.
ADT+ hub on a granite counter.
ADT’s new hub offers a few more twists.
Tyler Lacoma/CNET
7. Create a Wi-Fi guest network
A guest Wi-Fi network is a wonderful add-on if you have numerous visitors coming to visit. It allows you configure a distinct network and easy-to-remember password for all guest devices, keeping your home network secure and allowing you prioritize important home devices. Additionally, you may continue to use it whenever guests visit in the future. Although setting up a guest network is often rather simple using app settings, we have a comprehensive tutorial on the subject.
8. Get your smart home speaker a playlist.
Smart home speakers like an Echo are fantastic gadgets for playing Christmas music for a full house. However, there is a little issue: music streaming could not be dependable if your Wi-Fi network has many more visitor devices. To get around this issue, you may download a playlist to a phone or tablet and use Bluetooth to play it on the smart speaker. This is possible with many popular applications, such as Spotify, particularly if you have a membership.
Holiday music played on an Echo Show on a table in a festive environment.
To prevent any issues, have your smart speakers ready for visitors.
Amazon
9. Purchase locks and add voice to your voice assistants.
Although voice assistants are entertaining and useful, they may be a distraction when other people are present, particularly if children begin to use imaginative instructions. Although voice assistants may be completely disabled, we prefer the ability to restrict their capabilities.
For instance, you may restrict Alexa’s abilities and third-party services from using any voice other than the ones you add for yourself and your immediate family members by using the Voice ID portion of the settings. A very similar feature in Google Assistant’s Voice Match settings restricts device controls to certain voices.
Setting up a speech code to verify transactions made using voice assistants is also a smart idea, since it prevents users from making purchases with a simple command.
The price of the Anker 315 wireless charger is just over $10.
Wireless chargers are accessible to almost everyone.
David Carnoy/CNET
10 screenshot. Install one or more convenient wireless chargers.
Wireless chargers are compatible with almost all phones thanks to the widely used Qi charging standard. Provide a few wireless chargers so that your guests can use them without having to deal with a mess of power adapters. You’ll save even more outlets if you provide chargers with several charging pads.
11. Establish motion-activated nightlight routines
The majority of home security systems allow you to set up routines to increase their usefulness and link to compatible smart lights if you have a little more time. In particular, we’ve had excellent success putting up night mode routines for security sensors that, upon detecting motion, activate adjacent smart lights at low brightness levels.
In this manner, someone may have a gentle light to guide them if they wake up in the middle of the night without waking anybody else.
No home security system in place? You don’t need one: Devices like as this $50 When someone approaches, the Philips Hue motion sensor may instruct smart lighting what to do on its own.