Set up your smart speaker for emergencies

October 23, 2024 at 14:18 PM EDT

While you may already use your smart speaker for playing music, telling you the weather and answering trivia questions, there are also commands you can tell your device to get help in an emergency.

Smart speakers tell you the weather, play music, answer trivia questions, help you prank your spouse (more on that at the end), and they just might save your life one day.

Make sure you know these commands to get help in an emergency by heart.

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Let’s start with the most popular

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Amazon’s Echo line of smart speakers and voice assistant Alexa cannot call 911 for you. They won't reliably report your location and don't offer a callback number, so they don't meet the standard requirements. You have two options:

If you’re in the Google-verse

Google Nest speakers don't let you specify an emergency contact, but you can call anyone in your Google Contacts list.

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With Nest Aware ($8 a month or $80 a year), you’ll get direct 911 access, but the feature’s really designed to serve more as a security system for when you're out.

And if you’re an Apple person …

You can tell the Apple HomePod, "Hey, Siri, call 911." Easy.

Here’s the caveat: The speaker must be connected to an iPhone for this feature to work. If the HomePod can't find the iPhone used to set it up, it'll look for any other iPhones on the same Wi-Fi network to do the job.

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Now that we have the serious stuff out of the way, a prank

Say, "Hey, Alexa, speaker slower," while no one’s around, then give it the same command again. Enjoy watching the rest of your household wonder what the heck is wrong with Alexa. Say, "Alexa, speak at your default rate" to return to normal.

My fave Alexa prank of all time is training it to respond to specific questions a certain way:

Take a minute to think about how far we’ve come. This is an example of how tech can literally save your life — if you know how to adjust those settings. Do the people you care about a favor and pass this along.

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Set up your smart speaker for emergencies