I look forward to getting my hands on one of these! Just need to work out where to put it in the house first.
And possibly waiting for a POE version. But that’s a nit-pick.
Is it possible to test this out using a phone or PC? I really like the idea of local voice assist.
IIRC the home assistant android app has VA functionality built in.
Not sure if it works in the same way as this box though.
One of the best parts of HA is the HomeKit bridge: any supported device is exposed to HomeKit …… so if I’m using a personal device, my VA is Siri. Much smoother and more integrated than any of the app VAs. I have it configured to require a click, so it’s not always listening. However the rumors of the upcoming Apple smart home hub are mighty enticing, so we’ll see
I stopped using Google Assistant years ago.
Echo devices are pretty much in every room and a huge privacy issue. Also that’s my one integration with the biggest internet dependency. I don’t know if I can get rid of them, but I’d surely like to try
I’m not into any of the assistant ecosystems, they creep me out too much to have them listening in.
I’ve got my HA instance set up for independent VA integrations and I’ve had a few tries and using pi’s with microphone and speaker hats as custom endpoints, they worked okay-ish but it fell by the wayside eventually and i’ve just been waiting on this kind of first party-promoted kind of announcement to get back in to it.