5 On Your Side: Make the most of your smart speakers

Music, weather and podcasts are the usual suspects with a smart speaker. But today we're looking at how they can do so much more.

So whether you have a Google Home, Amazon Echo Dot or an Apple HomePod, make the most of them.

For those new to the speaker game, start simple: your morning news and weather briefings from WRAL News.

Even let it read out what's on your calendar.

But did you know, a smart speaker can also walk you through a workout?

In the kitchen, it can be your sous chef, from juggling multiple timers to helping with your food prep questions. You can even add ingredients to a grocery list.

A smart speaker can also stand in for a basic safety and security system.

"The Alexa Care Hub is a great feature for loved ones that live alone. It allows you to monitor them and check in on them with a quick phone call or video chat,” said Dan Wroclawski with Consumer Reports.

Control and connect your other smart devices to your speaker so you have one centralized hub for, let's say, your video doorbell, or even a connected, robotic vacuum.

And if you have more than one speaker with the same assistant, you can create a multi-room sound system to keep listening as you move through the house.

One note as you venture into the smart speaker world, not as many products work with Apple’s HomeKit or Siri compared with Alexa and Google.