How Useful Are Smart Speakers in the Kitchen? We Found Out

Smart speakers have a lot of uses, but have you thought about using one in your kitchen? I’ve had a smart speaker in my kitchen for years, and I honestly couldn’t live without it. Here are some of the ways I use my kitchen speaker every day.

With a Smart Speaker, I Never Use My Built-In Oven Timer

While I primarily use a smart display in my kitchen, most of what I’m about to talk about works just as well on a smart speaker. To start with, the absolute most used function of my smart speaker in the kitchen is setting timers.

I can’t tell you the last time that my wife or I used the built-in timer on the oven. We simply put whatever into the oven, and say, “Hey Google, set a 45-minute timer for chicken.” Then, we say “Hey Google, set a 15-minute timer for pasta.” And we can set another timer for cookies, tea, and anything else.

Since we use a display, we can visually see how long is left on the timer, but with a speaker, you can simply ask your assistant “How long is left on X timer” and it’ll read it out loud. Then, when the timer goes off, so long as you’ve labeled it, the speaker will say, out loud, what timer is going off. “Your pasta timer is up,” for example.

This is a basic function that all smart speakers should be able to handle, including labeling your timers.

Simple Questions Are Super Easy to Get Answered

Another big thing we use our smart speaker for is getting simple questions answered. How many tablespoons are in 1/3 cup? I have no idea, but Google does. What’s a good paprika substitute? Google knows. Or, even, “Can chickens have raw carrots?” because we have chickens in our backyard. The possibilities of the simple questions to ask your smart speaker are endless.

With the simple questions, my wife or I rarely look at the display, too. It’s almost always an answer read aloud from an article online, and I’d say 95% of the time it answers our question exactly on the first try. Occasionally, it’ll pull up a Google page, or we end up pulling out a phone, but for kitchen conversions, finding out what ingredients are in taco seasoning, or anything else like that, simply asking provides a satisfactory answer.

One smart speaker that might struggle here is the HomePod, since it’s not particularly great at answering questions in the same way that Nest and Echo devices are.

Smart Speakers Are Good, Smart Displays Are Even Better

Recipes are one area where a smart display is better. But, honestly, this is something my wife and I use rarely. If we’re following a recipe, we typically print it out (old school, I know), but we still use our smart speaker for various tasks during the cooking process.

However, if you don’t want to print a recipe out, and you’d rather not use your phone, then smart speakers and smart displays are fully capable of helping you find a recipe and follow it. You can ask simple questions like “What recipe can I make with potatoes, rice, and cheese?” Our Google smart speaker is full of ideas.

Without a display, it might be more difficult to find something specific, but it’s still absolutely possible. And, with most smart speakers, you can start the request on the speaker, and make a selection on your phone, then have the speaker read the directions aloud to you.

However, when following recipes without a display, it’s easy to lose your spot when the directions are being read aloud and knowing what to do next isn’t the easiest. A way to alleviate this is to use your tablet for recipes if you don’t have a smart display.

If you want to use a smart assistant to make recipes often, I recommend buying one with a display as the best choice. It’s always listening, it’s always plugged in, it stays in the same spot on your counter, and it’s designed for hands-free and voice navigation between recipe steps.

Enjoy Music While You Cook, Hands-Free

Instead of having to pull out your phone, launch the music app, and browse for some tunes, you can simply ask your smart speaker to play some music. Whether it’s a specific genre of music, a style, artist, or random, smart speakers are great at music playback.

In fact, with whole-home solutions available from Amazon, Google, Apple, and other companies, you can even enjoy the tunes all throughout the house without missing a beat.

I don’t use this as often as I should, but it’s a fun distraction when I’m cooking and don’t necessarily need to follow a recipe too intently. If music is a real priority for you, make sure you pick a smart speaker with great audio quality.

Let the House Know That Dinner’s Ready

This is a lesser-known function of smart speakers, and one that we don’t use as we don’t have speakers throughout the house. But, as our family grows and our smart ecosystem in the house grows, I’m looking forward to being able to use the speakers to announce that dinner is ready in all the rooms.

Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri all support sending announcements to other speakers in the home. Let’s take Google Assistant, for example. You’d say “Hey Google, broadcast dinner is ready.” You could also say “tell everyone,” “shout,” or “announce” instead of “broadcast.”

This also works with specific rooms, like “Hey Google, announce to the living room that dinner is ready.” This will keep you from having to yell across the house or go into each room and is also kinda fun.

In fact, you can even take this a step further. You could say, “Hey Google, dinner’s ready” and have that set up as a scene that announces throughout the house a message as well as flashes lights in various rooms. This requires a lot more smart home gear to accomplish but can be triggered through a simple voice command using your smart speaker in the kitchen.

Alexa also uses the “broadcast,” command, while HomePod as “intercom,” instead.

The kitchen is a great place to put a smart speaker, just make sure you match your speaker to your smart home ecosystem of choice. For more ideas on how to use your smart speaker, check out some voice commands you can use everyday.