surprisingly things you can do with a smart displ

It’s great having a voice assistant on your bookshelf, but a smart display means you can get so much more out of your Google Assistant or Alexa. Not only can you ask for help with your daily schedule, find out interesting facts without picking up your phone, stream music, and receive notifications about your smart home, you can see everything on a touchscreen.

With a smart display, seeing is believing. There’s nothing like the first time you set up your display and realize you can tap, talk, or gesture to control it. You don’t have to just listen to music, you can watch videos. You don’t have to open your phone to see who triggered motion on your Nest, Ring, or Arlo cameras; you can just tap the screen and watch. Need to cook? With a smart display in your kitchen, you can watch YouTube videos of a new recipe or just have the recipe displayed in front of you.

That’s just scratching the surface of what one of these devices can do in your home. Check out these three surprising things you can do with your smart display.

Make video chat even better

le nest hub max video chat

When you choose the Google Nest Hub Max, you get a 10″ HD screen and amazing stereo speakers for crystal clear audio. You also get a 6.5 megapixel camera and a 127 degree field of view, and with that camera you can enjoy video calls even more than you do on your phone or tablet, because Google Nest Hub Max will track you as you move.

Go ahead, move around in front of your smart display. The Google Nest Hub Max will keep your face front and centre no matter where you roam within the field of view. You won’t be tied to one spot while chatting anymore, and that gives you more reason to want to pick up when someone calls and you’re in the middle of something.

Have your smart display tuck you in at night

Goodnight smart display

If you have a voice assistant like the Google Mini or Google Home, you might already use the ‘Goodnight’ feature. If you say ‘OK Google, good night” to your assistant, she will tell you what the weather is like the next day, ask you what time you want to set your alarm for, and play soothing music to lull you to sleep.

With a smart display, you can add to that nighttime routine. You’ll be able to add different functions like locking your Wi-Fi door lock or turning off your smart lights. The Google Nest Hub also has an ambient EQ feature that will dim the screen and match the tone of colours in the room. It automatically detects over 16 million combinations of colour, so the light is at the perfect level for sleeping.

One display to rule your smart home

Google Nest Hub smart home control

Most people realize that having a smart display means you can control some of your smart home devices, but did you know that depending on the display you choose, one screen can control over 5,000 different smart home gadgets?

You can answer your doorbell without moving from your couch or pulling out your phone, stream all of your home security cameras if you hear something out in your yard, tap the screen to lock a door, or turn down your thermostat with a swipe—even when you’re nowhere near it. Smart displays let you swipe back and forth on the screen, accessing different options so you don’t have to fumble on your phone for one app or another. Everything you own is right there on your display.

A smart display is going to be at the top of many holiday lists this year. Take a look at all of the smart displays Best Buy has right now, and choose the perfect gift for someone you love.

Shelly Wutke
Editor TV & Home Theatre
I'm a Vancouver freelancer and tech enthusiast. When I'm not writing you'll find me on my farm with my alpacas, chickens, and honeybees. Visit my website Survivemag