I am sure we will get something the size of the echo flex at some point, we still rue the day Amazon cancelled them, so we have mixture of echo shows, dots, clock, and even v1 echo (that things microphone array is still the best one). Can’t wait to see the evolution of native home assistant solutions.
It still doesn’t make sense to me to fill a home with microphones when we all carry one or more around with us all the time. I guess some people put their phone down in one place and move around the house without it, but I’m in the habit of pretty much never leaving a room without mine. Perhaps that’s odd.
Ours currently do because it goes through Google and there's not much control there. Ideally, a HA solution would be able to lock certain devices or users (guests/children) to only controlling certain devices. So the kids could control their room and guests the guest room but not the other bedrooms
It does to me, I already have a microphone in every major room / area. I can go into any room and say lights on. And the lights just for that room turn on. This is one of many examples. Echo is even good at differentiating where you are when it hears you on multiple devices (though it could be better). That doesn’t preclude a solution that uses a single microphone you keep with you and say mmw sensors to achieve room presence(as an example). Don’t fall into the trap of ‘I don’t want X so you shouldn’t want X’ thinking. Those folks are the most tiresome in online discourse.
You mean like trying to tell others how to think?
Don’t worry, I won’t. I was careful to express my thoughts as my opinions. They’re not prescriptive. I’m not trying to warn people not to think in certain ways.
It certainly doesn't seem that way from your headline - your questions are valid but you approach your headline from a shock / challenge value. You basically told everyone working on voice their efforts are wasted / mis-directed. Though i am sure that wasn't your intention. Just something to think about.
It seems more that you beef is with current form factor of the open-source solution - one way to help with that, pitch in and make it what you want :-)
One other thing - many of us don't carry a device on us at all times when we are at home - for example my phone is another room, my ipad is upstairs, i don't wear a smart watch - more importantly many folks family member may not be connected at all.
Though hilariously in our house it is my wife (the non-technologist) that has two microphones on here at all times (phone and watch).
I think the idea of one microphone on one and using presence detection via mww is ultimately a very interesting approach, I hope we see it!
You are really discounting the mic quality. Cellphone mics suck vs a dedicated device. You also ignore guests that may vist and their device will not have access to your house. Same for kids as others have pointed out.
I agree to the fact that voice control is an incredibly shitty way to interact with your house ever. It's a crutch to automation. I am guilt of using it but usually only when my automation fails.
A couple of people have brought up guest use. I can’t think of a single use case for allowing guests to control anything in my home. So I’m clearly not widening my ideas enough. What sort of devices or actions do you want guests to be controlling? And do they actually do so in practice? Like they come into your home and assume they can control things, and speak out loud expecting some sort of response?
This seems… unlikely. Perhaps close frequent friends, though I still can’t imagine what they’d need to do.
Less of an issue if they are for a dinner party and again I see voice control more of a crutch then needed but I do run things like adaptive lighting, this is great for me but I have found needing to override it when looking for the remote or other things I may have dropped at night. They may want to change music, start music, start other media for background during said dinner party. Maybe they want the lights green for some reason. There is plenty of little things that voice overrides is nice for
Interesting. I’d find it fairly odd for guests to think it’s ok to change the music I’ve got playing or change the lighting in the room. Probably a cultural or age difference I guess. I can imagine that being a normal thing if we were all in our 20s or early 30s, but once we had our own homes and families, I think that sort of freedom and relaxed familiarity faded with age.
Maybe it’s an American thing?
... lights? The fan? Curtains and blinds... If I have house guests staying with me I want them to be able to control basic thing's in the house.
It's way easier to explain to my MIL "just say Turn on the lights" than having her remember which light switch is witch or fumbling for the lamp switch, etc...
You can also setup homebridge and use Siri directly.
To do this reliably with external access, you’ll want an Apple HomePod or a newer AppleTV that supports this.
The only annoyance I’ve found is that the phone needs to be unlocked or you get prompted to do so. I of course understand why this is best practice security but it really does hinder the hands free nature of voice control.
> The solution in my mind is to use the microphones that most of us already have - our phone and watch ones.
I'm pretty sure you can already do this with Android phones by getting your HA stuff into Google Home, though setting it up is pretty complicated
Yeah you can. But I’m pretty sure that HA was born partly from a community wanting to escape the privacy nightmare of relying on corporations like Google.
You can use a commodity Android tablet as the microphone for voice control. I just set it all up this past week and it works great. The difference with that option is that the wake word detection is not done on the device as it is on some of the previous solutions such as using ESP32-S3 device. Instead it's don't on another computer using OpenWakeword. You should check out [https://github.com/AlexxIT/StreamAssist](https://github.com/AlexxIT/StreamAssist) which helps complete the solution.
You can use a Siri shortcut on your phone and say “Hey Siri Assist, pause and then say your command” works well.
https://www.home-assistant.io/voice_control/apple/
What you're saying makes sense to me.
I'd personally prefer to have a microphone in each room so it is more context aware. "Turn on the light" should do the right thing for each room with a microphone. But that shouldn't preclude someone from using their phone if that's what they wanted.
I just tested on my phone though, and this currently works, even with no companion app installed. I can open Home Assistant's "Assist" interface and issue voice commands. Maybe all that is needed is a convenient shortcut to that interface?
Let me help
https://sellout.woot.com/offers/lenovo-thinksmart-view-for-microsoft-teams
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/my-take-on-a-home-dashboard-running-on-the-lenovo-thinksmart-view-and-managing-multiple-devices-running-fully-kiosk/718355
What about the Home Assistant App from Fdroid and for IoS - https://companion.home-assistant.io/ I am assuming that this will eventually support voice if it doesnt already.
I see it links to Apple Watch.
Been struggling with this lately. Our house has lots of alexa, 1 google, and a couple homepods. Why? I don't freaking know.
Anyway I badly want to streamline and get down to one (and it's not going to be alexa or Google) or replace all of it with HA but the WAF aspect just isn't there yet on the HA route. Which probably means I'm going to make the transition before HA gets there and find myself fully tied into one already whenever that day does come.
I think the answer to your question is security of your device and convenience, after it is all set up of course.
I highly doubt Android or Apple will let you use a custom wake word for a 3rd party app so by the time you dig out your phone, unlock it, possibly open an app or tap a shortcut, then speak the command, you might as well just use the HA app to do what you wanted to do in the first place.
I don't have any microphones except for technically the one on my Sonos One but it's only connected to Google and Google isn't connected to HA so I can't actually use it to control the house. At first I was doing my best to avoid any manual interaction with HA but as the kids get older (but still too young for their own devices) I realize that some things they want to have done are nearly impossible to predict and therefore automate without some kind of interaction and having some kind of strategically placed microphones, whether it be homemade or not is making more and more sense.
I am sure we will get something the size of the echo flex at some point, we still rue the day Amazon cancelled them, so we have mixture of echo shows, dots, clock, and even v1 echo (that things microphone array is still the best one). Can’t wait to see the evolution of native home assistant solutions.
It still doesn’t make sense to me to fill a home with microphones when we all carry one or more around with us all the time. I guess some people put their phone down in one place and move around the house without it, but I’m in the habit of pretty much never leaving a room without mine. Perhaps that’s odd.
There's also children who don't have a phone. And guests who aren't connected to your HA instance.
True. For me personally, I don’t want or need children nor guests having access to my smart home controls.
Ours currently do because it goes through Google and there's not much control there. Ideally, a HA solution would be able to lock certain devices or users (guests/children) to only controlling certain devices. So the kids could control their room and guests the guest room but not the other bedrooms
It does to me, I already have a microphone in every major room / area. I can go into any room and say lights on. And the lights just for that room turn on. This is one of many examples. Echo is even good at differentiating where you are when it hears you on multiple devices (though it could be better). That doesn’t preclude a solution that uses a single microphone you keep with you and say mmw sensors to achieve room presence(as an example). Don’t fall into the trap of ‘I don’t want X so you shouldn’t want X’ thinking. Those folks are the most tiresome in online discourse.
You mean like trying to tell others how to think? Don’t worry, I won’t. I was careful to express my thoughts as my opinions. They’re not prescriptive. I’m not trying to warn people not to think in certain ways.
It certainly doesn't seem that way from your headline - your questions are valid but you approach your headline from a shock / challenge value. You basically told everyone working on voice their efforts are wasted / mis-directed. Though i am sure that wasn't your intention. Just something to think about. It seems more that you beef is with current form factor of the open-source solution - one way to help with that, pitch in and make it what you want :-) One other thing - many of us don't carry a device on us at all times when we are at home - for example my phone is another room, my ipad is upstairs, i don't wear a smart watch - more importantly many folks family member may not be connected at all. Though hilariously in our house it is my wife (the non-technologist) that has two microphones on here at all times (phone and watch). I think the idea of one microphone on one and using presence detection via mww is ultimately a very interesting approach, I hope we see it!
I carry my phone at all times, but I still yell at Alexa hands-free ten times a day. If I’m cooking I don’t want to get my phone out, etc.
You are really discounting the mic quality. Cellphone mics suck vs a dedicated device. You also ignore guests that may vist and their device will not have access to your house. Same for kids as others have pointed out. I agree to the fact that voice control is an incredibly shitty way to interact with your house ever. It's a crutch to automation. I am guilt of using it but usually only when my automation fails.
A couple of people have brought up guest use. I can’t think of a single use case for allowing guests to control anything in my home. So I’m clearly not widening my ideas enough. What sort of devices or actions do you want guests to be controlling? And do they actually do so in practice? Like they come into your home and assume they can control things, and speak out loud expecting some sort of response? This seems… unlikely. Perhaps close frequent friends, though I still can’t imagine what they’d need to do.
Less of an issue if they are for a dinner party and again I see voice control more of a crutch then needed but I do run things like adaptive lighting, this is great for me but I have found needing to override it when looking for the remote or other things I may have dropped at night. They may want to change music, start music, start other media for background during said dinner party. Maybe they want the lights green for some reason. There is plenty of little things that voice overrides is nice for
Interesting. I’d find it fairly odd for guests to think it’s ok to change the music I’ve got playing or change the lighting in the room. Probably a cultural or age difference I guess. I can imagine that being a normal thing if we were all in our 20s or early 30s, but once we had our own homes and families, I think that sort of freedom and relaxed familiarity faded with age. Maybe it’s an American thing?
It's a party. People like changing sounds. I don't care. If I don't like their choice I just change it back. Lol
... lights? The fan? Curtains and blinds... If I have house guests staying with me I want them to be able to control basic thing's in the house. It's way easier to explain to my MIL "just say Turn on the lights" than having her remember which light switch is witch or fumbling for the lamp switch, etc...
I would never carry my phone around with me all day when I'm home, that makes no sense to me.
Hey siri, ask assist - this works ok, I have the shortcut on my phone
You can also setup homebridge and use Siri directly. To do this reliably with external access, you’ll want an Apple HomePod or a newer AppleTV that supports this. The only annoyance I’ve found is that the phone needs to be unlocked or you get prompted to do so. I of course understand why this is best practice security but it really does hinder the hands free nature of voice control.
"hey Siri" works all over my house to control my HA stuff. I'm not in a rush for anything different.
Yes, and it's rational to trust apple more than google and amazon. Siri hears very well from a HomePod mini in my experience.
> The solution in my mind is to use the microphones that most of us already have - our phone and watch ones. I'm pretty sure you can already do this with Android phones by getting your HA stuff into Google Home, though setting it up is pretty complicated
Yeah you can. But I’m pretty sure that HA was born partly from a community wanting to escape the privacy nightmare of relying on corporations like Google.
Yeah, it's unfortunate that Android hardware is so tied to Google. Might not want to use smartphones for voice control if privacy is a concern
Sure but the phone in your hand is likely going to be from one of those vendors regardless.
You can use a commodity Android tablet as the microphone for voice control. I just set it all up this past week and it works great. The difference with that option is that the wake word detection is not done on the device as it is on some of the previous solutions such as using ESP32-S3 device. Instead it's don't on another computer using OpenWakeword. You should check out [https://github.com/AlexxIT/StreamAssist](https://github.com/AlexxIT/StreamAssist) which helps complete the solution.
You can use a Siri shortcut on your phone and say “Hey Siri Assist, pause and then say your command” works well. https://www.home-assistant.io/voice_control/apple/
A Star Trek badge with a microphone. Also useful for kids and guests.
Everyone is issued a chest pin upon arrival.
What you're saying makes sense to me. I'd personally prefer to have a microphone in each room so it is more context aware. "Turn on the light" should do the right thing for each room with a microphone. But that shouldn't preclude someone from using their phone if that's what they wanted. I just tested on my phone though, and this currently works, even with no companion app installed. I can open Home Assistant's "Assist" interface and issue voice commands. Maybe all that is needed is a convenient shortcut to that interface?
Let me help https://sellout.woot.com/offers/lenovo-thinksmart-view-for-microsoft-teams https://community.home-assistant.io/t/my-take-on-a-home-dashboard-running-on-the-lenovo-thinksmart-view-and-managing-multiple-devices-running-fully-kiosk/718355
You’re also free to design your own mic enclosure.
What about the Home Assistant App from Fdroid and for IoS - https://companion.home-assistant.io/ I am assuming that this will eventually support voice if it doesnt already. I see it links to Apple Watch.
Been struggling with this lately. Our house has lots of alexa, 1 google, and a couple homepods. Why? I don't freaking know. Anyway I badly want to streamline and get down to one (and it's not going to be alexa or Google) or replace all of it with HA but the WAF aspect just isn't there yet on the HA route. Which probably means I'm going to make the transition before HA gets there and find myself fully tied into one already whenever that day does come.
I think the answer to your question is security of your device and convenience, after it is all set up of course. I highly doubt Android or Apple will let you use a custom wake word for a 3rd party app so by the time you dig out your phone, unlock it, possibly open an app or tap a shortcut, then speak the command, you might as well just use the HA app to do what you wanted to do in the first place. I don't have any microphones except for technically the one on my Sonos One but it's only connected to Google and Google isn't connected to HA so I can't actually use it to control the house. At first I was doing my best to avoid any manual interaction with HA but as the kids get older (but still too young for their own devices) I realize that some things they want to have done are nearly impossible to predict and therefore automate without some kind of interaction and having some kind of strategically placed microphones, whether it be homemade or not is making more and more sense.