It’s almost Halloween, and just over 41 million potential trick-or-treaters are about the take to the streets, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. If you want your house to stand out among all those trying to be the most terrifying, technology is here to help.
Since your doorbell is the thing that will likely get the most action on Halloween night, why not make it something special?
Nest Hello doorbells have given you the option to add a touch of fright each time someone rings. You can change the theme of your ringtone to Halloween for a rotation of custom sounds. When little goblins press the bell, they’ll hear either a cackling witch, a ghost, a vampire or a scary monster.
To change your Nest doorbell settings, tap your video doorbell on the Nest app home screen and go to Settings > Doorbell Theme. Choose Halloween for now, but don’t forget the other special options coming up for Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years and one for generic winter sounds. When the holiday is over, the doorbell sound will automatically go back to normal so you won’t be hearing witches cackle when Thanksgiving guests arrive.
The Ring doorbell has added a creepy and kooky option for Halloween. The Addams Family chime tone is available through the end of November through the Ring app. Go to Audio Settings > Chime Tones to find it.
If you have the Ring Video Doorbell 2, the company is also offering Halloween print faceplates for $15. It’s just a quick facelift for your doorbell and can be easily swapped in and out to add a bit of scary design.
Smart home assistants are also waiting and ready to entertain you with tons of sounds and activities for the season.
To set the right frightful ambience in your home, use your Amazon device and say, “Alexa, start Spooky Halloween Sounds.” You’ll hear all sorts of creepiness until you tell it to stop. You can also get just one hour of scary background music by saying, “Alexa, open Halloween Ambience.” Alexa is also loaded with spooky Halloween stories, but be aware that Amazon warns that some may not be suitable for kids or people who scare easily. Alexa can also tell you Halloween jokes and launch a Ghost Detector that claims to find and capture ghosts.
You can tell one of your Google Nest speakers or displays to “get spooky” to hear an hourlong playlist of Halloween sounds and music. Or test your knowledge of the holiday and challenge up to four players by saying, “Hey Google, talk to Halloween Trivia Game.”
Just want some Halloween jams? Tell your smart assistant to play Spotify’s Ultimate Halloween Playlist. You’ll hear what Spotify claims are the 100 spookiest tracks ever.
And for a little home Halloween entertainment, open the Snapchat app on your phone and head to the camera filter that looks like a target. First, you can take selfies that turn you into a witch, mermaid or a unicorn. Then, flip the camera for an augmented reality experience that kids will love. A doorway appears out of nowhere, leading you in to an interactive haunted house. Explore the room and get close up with all the spooky decor, then touch certain objects on the screen to see pop-ups and earn points. This is sponsored by Target and is just good plain fun.
With only a few days until Halloween, no need to go out and buy a bunch of things to make your home frightful. Use the gadgets you already own and with a little help from technology, you can easily bring in all the freaky feelings of the holiday.