5 smart home assistant hacks that are going viral on TikTok

However you may feel about it, there's no doubt that TikTok is home to a wealth of useful information and hacks. We've already taken a deeper look at the viral pineapple sleep hack and the controversial Girl Dinner, but now it's time for something a little different...

Smart home devices have seamlessly integrated into many homes over the past few years, especially smart speakers and smart plugs. A lot of these devices have many clever features and hacks that help with day-to-day tasks, making their user's lives easier and more peaceful. This can also be seen through social media, with many smart home hashtags rising into the top 50 tech hashtags on TikTok, such as #AlexaHack and #SiriHack. 

In light of the topic, Joe Davies, expert at FatJoe, has stated that "Creators on TikTok are educating users on many of these hidden hacks that have existed on our devices for a while, and it’s worth a search to make sure you’re getting the most use out of your smart home assistants.”

1. Siri can tell you where you parked your car

We’ve all done it, parked up and had trouble remembering where we left our car. However, did you know Siri can help you remember when that time comes?

You can then pick between double tap or triple tap to activate a shortcut. TikTok user Faisal (BD i-tech) received over 90.1k likes on the tutorial where he asked Siri to remember where the car is parked, and then later when it asked for directions to the car again. Siri provides walking directions to your car’s location through the Apple maps feature.

@bditech

♬ original sound - Faisal (BD i-Tech)

2. Remove ad and notification pop-ups from your Echo show

The display on the Amazon Echo show often is filled with news, ads and notifications, often making using it extremely annoying. However, TikTok creator Braylea Smith recently shared a handy tip to make this a more aesthetically pleasing feature in your home. 

All you need to do is go to settings, go to home content and turn off all options aside from photo highlights. This allows your device to show photos, and you can curate the images shown to fit the look and feel of your room.

@brayleasmith

Alexa Tip: Part One How to disable all of the news, ads, etc that are automatically programmed on your device. Part two I’ll show you how to upload your own art or photos 🖼 Bringing in the asthetic alexa for 2024 who’s with me!💫

♬ Love You So - The King Khan & BBQ Show

3. Using Siri to search your camera album

If storage isn’t an issue, many of us have photos on our iPhone photo gallery stretching back years. To help manage this huge back log, TikTok creator Kathleen in Mississippi showed her 26k followers a hack that allows Siri to search for specific locations or timeframes for your photos. 

Asking Siri to show photos from a specific location or time will allow it to jump directly to your camera roll, making it unnecessary to scroll through hundreds or thousands of photos whenever you want to find a specific one. 

@kathleenolivieri

♬ original sound - Kathleen - in Mississippi

4. Turn your Google Nest into a translation device

Believe it or not, but Google Nest can use Google Translate software to listen to two people speaking and translate their conversation in real time. Instructing your Nest to “act like a German interpreter” will begin interpreting spoken language and translating it on the device. 

TikTok user southwestrdrc posted about this hack, and whilst this feature isn’t expansive of all languages, it’s a handy trick that some viewers will definitely be missing.

@southwestrdc

♬ Lo-fi hip hop - NAO-K

5. Make your Alexa whisper back

Amazon Alexa devices have some secret features that some users may not know about, something that TikToker Luke Medeiros showed his 121k followers. 

If you ask Alexa to enable Adaptive Volume and ‘Whisper Mode’, it allows you to whisper instructions to your voice assistant, and the response will match your tone in which you’ve done so. This is super useful for using your device when you don’t want to make too much noise!

@lukemmedeiros

♬ METAMORPHOSIS - INTERWORLD

If you're interested in more, check out these 7 privacy tips to protect your smart speakers and virtual assistants!