Help thinking of how to use Routines or IFTTT to do this: trigger white noise player at bedtime

SmartApps & Automations Automation Ideas
#1

Hi!

I’m not really good yet at getting my head around/figuring out how to use things like Routines in ST or IFTTT (or Stringify, etc) to make multiple things happen. Specifically, I’d like to find a way to trigger night time sleep sounds. I have Nightingale which does connect via voice to Google Home but I need additional sound too as it isn’t quite loud enough on its own. Google Home can do a multitude of sounds but I’m looking for a way other than voice to trigger this. I just read about the Flic button in a LifeHacker article (https://lifehacker.com/you-need-a-flic-button-if-you-re-into-smart-homes-1821324815) and they specifically talk about what I’m wanting to do in terms of creating a nighttime routine that turns off all the lights, and starts sound. The reason I don’t want to do this via voice is that my spouse often falls asleep before I do with something quiet on TV but if I have to actually talk to get this working, it will likely wake him up. Could anyone offer any suggestions as to how I might set this up as a Routine in ST (if possible), as an applet in IFTTT, or as a flow in Stringify? I’m hoping that if I could understand how to do this on this particular situation, if may help me figure out how to create more things like it moving forward.

Thanks so much in advance!
Rae

PS I wanted to add one other thoughts…would this work perhaps with an NFC tag somehow? Obviously, I’d have to have the triggers setup already in something else but NFC is much less expensive than Flic. Just curious.

#2

are you wanting to play sounds out of the Google Home and Nightingale, or just Nightingale?

1 Like
#3

Both, actually. I love the “sound blanket” effect of Nightingale (and I have to say it does seem to help our sleep) but it’s not quite loud enough to mask all the sounds we need, hence another option. Since Google Home can natively do “relaxing sounds” as Google calls it, it seems like the perfect option.

As I said above, I’m partially using this as a way to try to learn how to come up with and craft these types of rules/routines/applets/flows, etc. I learned of someone using such complex rules with their thermostat and windows sensors where the thermostat automatically turned off when the window was opened unless it got beyond a certain temperature range when it would override and turn on anyway. Amazing. While I know this isn’t exactly what I’m talking about, that type of multi “thing” interdependent setup is just incredible to me and what I’d like to be able to do more of.