How a smart speaker will help you say goodbye to routine - it’s fun and controls household chores

A smart speaker can be compared to a virtual family member. Having settled in the house, she takes care of the household. The device will obediently boil water in a kettle, turn on an interesting movie, cheer you up with catchy music, turn off the lights at the specified time...

Smart speaker for music

In appearance, the device resembles an ordinary music speaker. Therefore, the first thing that comes to mind is to use a smart speaker to listen to music. But this time you won’t have to turn on, rewind, scroll through, or adjust the volume in the usual way. The device can perform voice commands:

“Turn on Linkin Park”;
“Rewind 20 seconds”;
“Make it quieter by 30%”;
"Stop".

Even if you don’t know what exactly you want to listen to, you can find music to your liking:

“Turn on some fun music”;
“Play a sad song”;
“Find music for the party.”

You can create your own collections or listen to the radio. In this case, the sound can come from the speaker itself or a connected stereo system. For this purpose, most devices have a 3.5 mm jack.

If there are several smart speakers, you can turn them on all over the house at once by issuing the command: “turn on music everywhere.” How does it get rid of routine? Very simple. With a smart speaker, when you wash dishes, take a bath or brush your teeth, you don't need to dry your hands and go to another room. There is no need to break away from communication with loved ones or important matters.

Smart TV speaker

Just like listening to music, you can watch your favorite movies, TV series and TV shows through the device. The smart speaker connects to most TV models with an HDMI connector. The sensitive microphones with which it is equipped pick up the voice and listen to voice commands:

"Turn on new comedies"
“Rewind to 45 minutes.”
“Turn up the volume all the way.”
"Stop".

Hearing the request, the device finds the film on the Internet and turns it on. Or displays several options. You can choose “number one” or “two”. Ask to find a video on YouTube or another resource.

What is a smart speaker

A smart speaker is a device from the future. Many have seen science fiction films in which every house is equipped with an artificial intelligence system. The hero returns home and tells her (or him): “Turn on the music and close the curtains. Turn the lights down low and draw me a bath.” While the commands are being executed, he communicates with the voice, finds out the weather or news, and may ask to call a friend.

A smart speaker is a speaker with built-in sensitive microphones and a voice assistant powered by artificial intelligence.

According to statistics, in the United States there are smart speakers in every fifth home. Here the technology has been actively developing since 2014, and in Russia - since 2018. The operating principle is the same, but the devices and voice assistants are different. Abroad, the leading models are Google's Google Home, Amazon's Sonos One and Apple's HomePod (with Google Assistant, Alexa and Siri). They do not understand Russian speech, although such developments are underway.

In Russia, the most famous models of smart speakers are Yandex.Station with Alice from Yandex and Capsule with Marusya from Mail.ru.

What else can she do?

A smart speaker can do a lot. For example, you can give it the command:

Turn on a humidifier, garland, kettle or other device.
Set a timer so that the lights turn on at a certain time. Or, on the contrary, it turned off.
Set an alarm.
Tell the latest news in the city, country or world.
Talk to artificial intelligence. Assistant Alice, Marusya and others answer well and even know how to joke. It lifts your spirits. Some people take particular pleasure in confounding artificial intelligence. Example dialogues:
Entertain. Artificial intelligence knows a lot of jokes. You can play different word games with Alice. For example, "Cities".
Answer your questions (provide a certificate). The smart speaker will calculate an example, convert euros into rubles, tell you how much oil costs, what the weather is like in your city or another country. Housewives need it to quickly find a recipe or method for removing coffee stains.
Include a fairy tale for children, the game “Riddles”, “Repeat the tongue twister” and others.
Children can also communicate with a smart speaker. To avoid getting too “adult” an answer, the application selects the “children’s” mode.
Calling a smart speaker. In the new Yandex.Station Max model, you can call the speaker through the Yandex Messenger application. This will come in handy in situations where household members cannot hear the phone.

This is just a small part of what the device does. There is a whole catalog of skills that is constantly being updated. Of course, in order to take full advantage of all the features, you will need a functional speaker, as well as other smart equipment.

Ideally, a smart speaker is a smart home manager, a kind of remote control for all electronics. It helps set a comfortable temperature, humidity, and start washing and washing dishes.All that remains for a person to do is give commands.

Video reviews:

Questions and answers

Question: What is needed for a smart speaker to work?

Answer: Stable internet with Wi-Fi.

Question: How much does the device cost?

Answer: Prices for speakers start from 3-4 thousand rubles. The cheapest are miniature models Irbis A and Yandex.Station Mini. They cannot boast of high sound quality and microphone sensitivity, and the lack of an HDMI connector is also disappointing. The most functional smart speakers in Russia today are considered Capsule, Yandex.Station and Yandex.Station Maxi for 8,000 rubles, 10,000 rubles. and 17,000 rub. respectively.

Question: Is it necessary to buy smart appliances to control them through a smart speaker?

Answer: Preferred, but not required. You can get by with smart plugs. The speaker will be able to turn sockets on and off, and along with them, appliances. The downside is that you won’t be able to switch device modes.

The idea of a smart home is rapidly coming to life. Remotely controlled devices are no longer a new thing. Every day more and more of them appear: kettles, light bulbs, water and electricity meters, robotic vacuum cleaners. Using voice commands, you can control the air conditioner, multicooker, dishwasher and much more. A smart speaker is a means of communication with devices in the house, a personal assistant that helps make life easier, and simply an interesting conversationalist.