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Writer's pictureTamara Speedie

"OK Google ... Light up my life"


The integration of smart devices in houses now is fantastic. It has been a great relief, as new parents, to be able to ask our Google Home devices to "play thunderstorm" white noise in an effort to keep Miss 2.5 asleep if Master 8months decides to give his vocal cords a workout at midnight.


We have recently discovered our Google Home Mini (and Google Nest Mini, we have a few) can do some exciting little tricks, more so than "start a timer" or tell us what time it is where the in-laws live. After a trip to Kmart to get some smart lightbulbs (Mirabella Genio) with the full spectrum of colours we have found there are at least four light shows your Google Home device can put on for you.


Let's Get Spooky

The first light show we discovered came about by pure accident. After about 20 minutes of asking Google "what sound does a (insert animal name here) make?" with Miss 2, things got a little quirky. If you are within earshot of a Google Home device (Nest/Hub/Mini etc) device say aloud "Hey Google, what sound does a Minion make?", to which I anticipated Google to reply by playing the little ba-ba-ba ba-ba-na-na' clip that the Minion characters sing. Instead, Google replied with "Let the Haunting begin." and she proceeded to alternate our lights through 'spooky' colours (purple, green, orange) and play eerie sounds. We believe the proper command to activate this sequence is "Let's get Spooky" and it is the perfect 'party trick' for Halloween, Friday 13th or your next Murder Mystery party.


Let's get Jolly

Knowing that Halloween couldn't be the only holiday/event Google programmed a light show for, we started trying to guess phrases that would activate a Christmas themed light show. After trying all of the typical words like Cheer, Merry and Festive we eventually guessed "Ok Google, Let's get Jolly". This made our lights alternate between a warm white, a crisp cool white and red backed by an acoustic 30 second clip of Jingle Bells with children cheering.


*Cue husband now manually googling what other light show commands we could give to our Google Home Mini.* We did try to ask our Google what light shows she could do but that didn't work out as planned.


Turn Up the Love

Albeit I wasn't alive in the 70s but this next one has a cheesy 70s feel to it...

"Hey Google, Turn Up the Love" is the perfect command for your Google on Valentines Day, your next Anniversary or Date Night. Google will play a smooth saxophone tune and alternate the lights through red, pink and purple colours. We've started a little ritual where mum and dad get to make cheesy public displays of affection when this routine is activated. Luckily we are still at the stage where our kids think it's funny and ask us to do it again.


Rainbow

While we are definitely a Christmas household, this next light show is tied for first place with "Let's get Jolly". The command is "Ok Google, make the lights go Rainbow"; Google will now proceed to alternate your lights from red, through orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink twice while playing cliche magical harp type sounds with birds chirping - it's pretty sweet. If I work out a way to make our Google do this for a longer period I'll be sure to update this post.


Limitations:

It is worth noting that your Google Home device will only perform the light shows on the lights in the same "room" (on your Google Home app) as the Google Home device receiving the command. If no lights are available your Google will simply play the audio part of these shows.


Need more?

If you enjoyed these light shows I highly recommend exploring the world of routines with your Google device. The Mirabella Genio range at Kmart are an affordable way to automate your home with your Google or Alexa (and possibly others).

Each year we plug our Christmas Tree lights into a Mirabella Genio Wifi Plug so that we can tell Google to "turn on the Christmas Tree". Further to this I actually spent a few minutes setting up a routine which is activated by the phrase "It's Christmas Time"; when I say this Google will turn off any lights in our living area, turn on the Christmas Tree and start playing the "Christmas Hits" playlist on Spotify. Which we find is a really nice way to start our mornings during the month of December.


Please note: This blog post was in no way sponsored by Mirabella, Google or Kmart, I simply wanted to share what we have found with others. For ease and convenience you can check out the Mirabella Genio range at Kmart here.

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