Summary
I grew up in the 1990s and watched a lot of TV, which means I also watched a lot of commercials. Some commercials are truly memorable, like the “clap on, clap off!” commercials for a smart home device from 1984 that would allow you to turn on two plugged-in devices (like a lamp, television, or your Christmas lights) just by clapping your hands two or three times. In the 90s, I thought The Clapper was the coolest thing ever.
I was surprised to find out that in 2026, you can still buy one, and so I went to Amazon and purchased it. After a few weeks with The Clapper, I was delighted by how simple and smart this 42-year-old gadget is. And here’s the thing: after months of fighting with my Echo setup, this 28 on Amazon, (but often dips down to $20-25 — you can use Amazon’s Price History tool to get the best price for anything on Amazon).
Even the box that it comes in, shown below, is simple and has that 80s charm.
What The Clapper actually is
So simple, even grandma can get it going
The Clapper is a simple smart plug that uses claps to toggle on an outlet (two claps turns on the first outlet and three claps turns on the second). The device itself contains two plugs, a microphone, status lights so you can see if it’s “hearing” your claps, and a switch to change sensitivity between high and low.
There’s a reason the TV commercials often feature senior citizens using the product—The Clapper is designed to make life easier and be truly easy to use, with pretty much no setup besides just plugging it in.
Setup is almost zero
It’s even more “plug and play” than your printer
Unlike other home automation products which require phone apps, a solid internet connection (no need to adjust Wi-Fi channels to maximize speed!), and some technical knowledge, The Clapper has no setup. Just plug it in (it can be plugged in right side up or upside down if you don’t want to block your other outlet), then plug in the one or two items you want to be able to control with your claps. It’s dead simple! There’s no logging in, there are no accounts to set up, and there are no dependencies. Truly plug and play!
The one downside here is that you can’t use The Clapper with anything with three prongs, which limits you to simpler plugged-in devices like most lamps, holiday lights, fans, some heating pads and coffee makers, and so forth. For example, you can’t connect a surge protector to The Clapper which requires the third prong for the ground wire.
It even has a built-in security mode
There’s a little toggle on The Clapper that lets you move between high and low sensitivity modes (I left it on High so that it’s able to hear the best), but there’s also an Away toggle. This is a brilliant home security feature that will turn on the plugged-in devices if The Clapper hears anything at all, like the steps of a nearby person or even the sound of someone talking.
You can use the Away security feature as a convenience feature: set it up with a lamp near your front door, and as soon as the device hears the front door open, the lamp goes on, then after a few minutes it automatically goes off. For a device that is over 40 years old, this is some cool technology!
But I have to say: when you get the clap right, it’s like magic.
Where it shines most
When you nail the clap, it’s delightful
I’ll admit, it takes some practice to get “the clap” right — the included instructions specify that you have to time your claps properly (with a distinct pause between each clap). But I have to say: when you get the clap right, it’s like magic.
It’s summer right now, but I’m looking forward to connecting this product to my Christmas lights so that a couple of claps from across the house will turn on my Christmas tree lights. For now, my Clapper is inside my closet (which happens to have an outlet) such that when I open the door, a lamp automatically goes on (with the Away setting turned on) with the opening door sound being the trigger.
That said, The Clapper isn’t perfect.
There’s a catch
It doesn’t always listen
Sometimes, The Clapper can confuse other sounds as claps, or it doesn’t hear clapping, and you have to try multiple times to get it to work. I actually find that the device is best triggered by other slapping sounds, like loud finger-snapping or the sound of you smacking your thigh (seriously). There is definitely a learning curve here, but once you master the clap and figure out how The Clapper listens, it gets much easier. The three lights on the device help a ton: you can monitor the lights to see when it hears you and calibrate your clapping based on when the lights go on.
The Clapper still wins at one key thing
At my home, I have multiple Amazon Echo devices. They’re amazing for home automation, but frankly, it took me months of tweaking to get the system to work just right. The Clapper excels at being refreshingly easy, and because it has no dependencies and virtually no setup, it works well as a supplemental home automation device that you can run in addition to your other smart home products. I wish other smart home tech was this simple.
The Clapper
The Clapper is a smart home gadget from the 1980s that switches on an outlet if it hears clapping sounds. It can control two plugged-in devices by clapping your hands two or three times.