Notify a PC from Google Home or Android

December 30, 2020 8:22 AM

I have a specific issue with notifying one of the kids that it's time for dinner (or to go, or whatever). He is often on his mom's computer with headphones on and this can't be done without screaming. What technological solutions are there to this problem?

We have an Android household, with a couple of google home minis are around, a couple of PCs, and an Android TV.

What I really want (but apparently can't have) is to be able to say, "Hey google, broadcast dinner time," and for it to go to all devices on the network, including PCs.

Is there something simple I can install that would allow google home (or my smartphone) to hail someone on a couple specific computers? Voice activated would be great, but not necessary, and a pop up might be preferable to a voice notification (in case someone is in a "real" meeting or something).

One possible solution is to widely disperse a number of google home devices. That seems like a waste since the kids have access to computers that I can install anything I want on and I'm not sure how crazy I am about even more devices in the house.

One thing that has definitely not worked is using something like Hangouts or Skype since it can be fairly unpredictable where the account holder is logged in.

I'll take non technological advice is also. Right now we're headed towards a "no headphones" rule, but that may not be very realistic with remote learning, sibling piano practice, etc.

posted by All Out of Lulz to Technology (8 answers total)

This is going to sound snarky but I promise you it is not meant that way. How about just going to wherever he is in the house, tapping him on the shoulder or whatever to get him to take the headphones off, and telling him the information you need to impart? My son has ADHD and we found the best way to get him to do x, y, or z was to physically be there and touch him in some way; tap on the shoulder, hand on arm, etc.
posted by cooker girl at 8:26 AM on December 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

Maybe I missed this, but does he have a phone, too? You could text him.
posted by Kitchen Witch at 9:41 AM on December 30, 2020

Amazon Echo claims to have this functionality, but I don't know what you'd have to do to set that up.
posted by grateful at 10:32 AM on December 30, 2020

My son always has a discord window open (whether he is on computer or phone), because that's where he chats with his friends. So that's where we message him. Texting and FB messenger both had problems, but it was easy to set up a family Discord server. I've found that it's easier to use what works best for the kid, sounds like you're doing the same. If there's an app he's always on, leverage that.
posted by rikschell at 10:45 AM on December 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Seconding Discord. It's the main method of communication in my household - more so than speech, even.
posted by WaywardPlane at 1:02 PM on December 30, 2020

Best answer: Pushbullet should be able to do it. It's an app. I can push notification from my phone to PC, or PC to phone, or any other connected device. And it's freemium.

Amazon Echo can do it... with other Echo devices through "drop in". I don't think it can do it to regular PCs running Alexa though.
posted by kschang at 10:03 PM on December 30, 2020

Response by poster: I think Pushbullet is basically what I want. It seem to have some problems work fullscreen games, though.
posted by All Out of Lulz at 7:35 AM on December 31, 2020

Fullscreen games usually won't let notifications through.

If he's on Steam, maybe you can open Steam client and send messages that way?
posted by kschang at 9:14 AM on January 2, 2021