You Can Create a Smart Home ‘Cinema Mode’ Automation

Most smart hubs mention “scenes," a preset scheme you can set up with devices in that family—for instance, all the dining rooms lights going to 50% brightness for a dinner party. If you extend that idea, you can create a “cinema mode” for your house using automations. Not just the lighting: You can also set your devices to do not disturb and shut off the wifi to your kids' devices. Heck, you can even turn on heated blankets and a popcorn popper, and you can do so with one button or voice command. 

First, make a list of what should and should not happen during this time. For instance: 

• Living room and hallway lights off

• Turn off wifi to kids devices

• Turn on cinema lights

• Set phones to “do not disturb”

• Turn on smart plugs

• Turn on popcorn machine

• Turn off smart vacuums

• Shut smart curtains

• Turn volume up on sound system

These are just examples; your list may vary.  We can do all of this with one automation, we'll use Google Home as an example. Start by going to automations. In this case, choose Personal routine, since it’s the only way to use the Do Not Disturb settings on your phone. For the trigger (known as a starter in Google Home), we’re going to use a voice command. Tap “When I say to Google Assistant." This means the automation will only work when we ask Google Assistant to run the automation, or we hit a button in Google Home. Google generally asks you to give it a few different ways to word the command, but I’ll start with “Set up cinema mode,” and you can choose additional ways to phrase it. 

Return to the main pane, and go to Actions. Here’s where we can get into the list above: For each of the items on the list, set up an action to match. For most, it will just be “Adjust home devices,” where you can turn the lights off, set cinema lights like your Nanoleaf or Govee LEDs on, turn on smart heated blankets (yes, it's a thing!), and shut your smart curtains. If you’ve got a popcorn popper on a smart plug, you can turn it on in this pane, and also turn off any smart vacuums so they don’t come on while you’re watching the movie. Affect volume on your Sonos here, too, and your A/C or heater to get the perfect conditions. 

Now let’s get into adjusting the wifi and do not disturb. Google won’t let you set other people’s devices to do not disturb, but it will let you set your own under “Adjust Phone Settings.”  Assuming you have Family Link set up for parental controls, you’d add that into your automation now, too, since you can control your kid’s access to wifi that way. 

Now, as a last piece to finish off the effect, go to “Make an Announcement,” and here you can create your own announcement that Google will say across any speakers you choose. You can make an announcement that it’s time for everyone to head to the living room for movie night. Assuming the routine will run once you’ve all assembled, use this to make a pre-show statement, like you get at the movie theater regarding turning off phones and devices, or any other family rules. It’s a nice touch. 

You’ll need a second automation to undo everything at the end of the movie, so set a second automation titled “Undo cinema mode” to set everything back.

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