Smart speakers are a great addition to the Aging-in-Place home. While some may try and stay away from newer technology, these speakers are easy to use and worth the money. Not only do smart speakers play music from multiple streaming services, they can also play audiobooks and podcasts. Many smart speakers come with Alexa or Google Assistant, which provide an easy way answer questions such as the weather or sport’s scores. There is a variety of features depending on brand, price, and style, but you are sure to find the perfect smart speaker for your loved one.
The Best Smart Speakers for Aging-in-Place
The Amazon Echo Dot is one of the most popular smart speakers, featuring the built-in smart assistant Alexa. It has improved sound quality, with balanced base and crisp vocals, for a pleasant listening experience. The Echo Dot can connect to other dots throughout the house, and they can all be controlled from one spot. The Alexa feature is extremely helpful for playing music, podcasts, and audiobooks. Your loved one can also find out the answer to any question they have by asking her. You can install compatible smart home devices, such as lightbulbs or smart locks, and connect them with the speaker to be controlled by Alexa. The Echo Dot has a Guard feature, which sends out mobile notifications if it detects a smoke alarm or glass breaking.
The Sonos One SL provides rich, room filling sound and is super easy to set up. It connects to Apple Airplay 2 and the Sonos App and can stream directly from a phone or iPad or be controlled with Siri. It has a wireless, lightweight design that is easy to move around and fits on a countertop. This smart speaker can be connected with other Sonos speakers throughout the house to create a home sound system easily.
The Bose Smart Speaker is a great portable option, and features a handle to move it around the home easily. This speaker is a Bluetooth speaker, home speaker, and voice control speaker all in one, and has 360 degrees of sound in its round design. The Bluetooth feature allows the speaker to be taken anywhere and still let your loved one play music from their phone, and is also waterproof and durable. Within wifi range, it can play music from streaming services such as Spotify or Amazon music, and can be used as an Alexa speaker. The Bose Portable Smart Speaker can be connected with other Bose speakers around the house to create a home sound system.
Bluesound Pulse Flex 2i Smart Speaker
This battery powered smart speaker works great with or without Bluetooth. It has USB ports on the back so a phone can be plugged in, or music can be played through Bluetooth connection. When connected to wifi it can be controlled from anywhere in the house, and can connect to Apple products with Airplay. The Bluesound Pulse Smart Speaker also connects with Alexa and can be used with any music streaming services.
The Bose Home Speaker 500 has great sound quality, providing wall-to-wall stereo sound. The big selling feature on this speaker is the excellent sensitive microphone. It listens in all directions and is noise-rejecting to extra sounds so it ensures it can hear any voice trying to connect with Alexa or Google Assistant. This is a helpful feature for the aging-in-place home, so your loved one doesn’t have the strain their voice for the speaker to hear them. The speaker can connect to a device through Bluetooth, wifi, Apple Airplay 2, or Spotify Connect. If the Bose Home Speaker 500 is connected with Alexa, your loved one can take or make calls through the speaker as well.
The Echo Show 5 takes the Echo Dot to the next level and features a 5.5″ smart display screen. Not only does this speaker allow your loved one to listen to music or podcasts, but they can call family members, look up recipes, check the weather, and more all with their voice. The screen doubles as a digital picture frame, and can rotate through a slideshow of personal photos all day.
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What should you do now?
Before shopping for smart speakers for the aging-in-place home, sit down with your loved one and ask what features they’d like. Smart speakers are advancing every day, and products can range from a simple Bluetooth speaker that plays music from a phone to a voice-controlled speaker that can tell you the weather and unlock doors. There are many options to consider, but I hope this guide made it easier to narrow down the list!
Let me know how you make out and, as always, leave your questions in the comments section below. I’ll be happy to give you the answer and help in any way I can.
Good luck with your next aging-in-place home project.
One of the reasons why we recommend products on Amazon is that oftentimes the product you need is either out of stock or on backorder from the manufacturer or third-party site. I find Amazon to be much more reliable when I need a product fast because they have access to so many sellers.
