Home Assistant Voice

Home Assistant Voice is an advanced, affordable voice hardware solution designed specifically for Home Assistant, emphasizing privacy and local processing. This device aims to provide a voice assistant experience that prioritizes user privacy over corporate interests.

The Voice Preview Edition includes high-quality hardware that features dual microphones with an XMOS audio chip for superior audio processing, a physical mute switch for guaranteed privacy, and tactile physical controls including a button and rotary volume dial. It also comes with an internal speaker for voice feedback and a 3.5mm audio output for connecting external speakers, all housed in a compact, unobtrusive injection-molded polycarbonate enclosure.

Home Assistant Voice supports both local and cloud processing. Locally, it ensures that user data never leaves the home, though this requires more powerful hardware. Alternatively, the Home Assistant Cloud can be used for speech processing, providing faster and more accurate performance on low-powered devices while maintaining user privacy through the enterprise services of Microsoft Azure.

The device supports a wide range of languages, with ongoing community efforts to expand this list. Users can also integrate AI models or local LLMs to enhance the voice assistant's capabilities, making it possible to control home devices with natural language commands. The firmware and hardware are fully open-source, encouraging community contributions and customization.

Priced at $59, the Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition is easy to set up with just a USB-C cable and setup wizard, making it accessible for users to start exploring the future of voice-controlled home automation.