{"id":61261,"date":"2025-12-11T17:34:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/?p=61261"},"modified":"2025-12-11T17:34:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:34:33","slug":"home-assistant-voice-preview-edition-foss-smart-home-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/en\/home-assistant-voice-preview-edition-foss-smart-home-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition \u2014 the open alternative to Alexa and Siri for controlling smart homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to smart speakers, Amazon has Alexa, Apple has the HomePod, and Google has Nest. If you want something private \u2014 that runs locally \u2014 to control your home, there weren\u2019t many alternatives.<\/p>\n

Or there weren\u2019t until now. To fill that gap, Nabu Casa, the sponsor of the Home Assistant open source project<\/a>, released the Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition.<\/p>\n

I bought six of these to replace six HomePods I had scattered around the house. After using them for a while, the question is: can you trust this for everyday use, or is it better to wait for a release without \u201cpreview\u201d in the name?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition box<\/h2>\n

The Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition<\/a> (Voice PE from now on) is a voice assistant device created by Nabu Casa, the commercial arm of the Home Assistant project. The idea is simple: a voice device you control, without depending on big tech companies.<\/p>\n

The box is small and minimalist. Inside you\u2019ll find the device itself, a quick-start guide and warranty information. As it\u2019s 2025, it doesn\u2019t include a USB-C cable or power adapter, so prepare to provide those yourself.<\/p>\n

The design is understated: a semi-translucent white square, an LED ring on top for visual feedback, a central button, an iPod-like dial for volume, and a physical switch that cuts power to the microphones.<\/p>\n

On the back there\u2019s a USB-C power port and a headphone jack to connect external speakers.<\/p>\n

\"Detail
Detail of the switch that turns off the Voice PE microphones. Photo: James Pond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Initial setup<\/h2>\n

Setup is straightforward. Power the device, open the Home Assistant app and it finds the device. A setup wizard guides you through the rest. Choose the wake word, the assistant\u2019s voice, and you\u2019re good to go.<\/p>\n

Important: the device requires a Home Assistant server to work. If you don\u2019t run Home Assistant at home and don\u2019t plan to install it, this product is not for you.<\/p>\n

On the plus side, Voice PE doesn\u2019t require a cloud account (anywhere, really) and gives you a level of control unmatched by the big tech alternatives.<\/p>\n

The microphones<\/h2>\n

I have six Voice PEs at home and they all work fine. I configured the wake word for local recognition and the devices generally understand my wife and me quickly.<\/p>\n

The mic isn\u2019t great, but it isn\u2019t terrible either \u2014 it\u2019s just\u2026 okay. Not as good as the HomePod mic, but good enough.<\/p>\n

The audio processor and two microphones do a decent job of echo cancellation and noise reduction. If you\u2019re nearby it will understand you without trouble. From across a large living room you\u2019ll need to project a bit more.<\/p>\n

Sensitivity can be adjusted in settings, which helps.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t have speaker recognition like the HomePod, so anyone can give commands. If you\u2019re watching something and make a request, it won\u2019t distinguish between your voice and the TV\u2019s audio.<\/p>\n

You can use up to two wake words, each with its own personality and language \u2014 a neat perk. \u201cOkay Nabu\u201d can accept English commands while \u201cHey Jarvis\u201d can handle Portuguese, for example.<\/p>\n

Officially there are three possible wake words: Okay Nabu, Hey Jarvis, and Hey Mycroft. The community has trained many others, but using those requires manually reconfiguring firmware, which is tedious.<\/p>\n

\nhttps:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/audio-assistente_converted.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

The power of AI<\/h2>\n

Request processing can happen via Home Assistant (locally), or through an AI model either local or remote (cloud).<\/p>\n

This is where Voice PE truly shines. The flexibility is enormous. The advantages of using an AI to process requests, local or remote, are many.<\/p>\n

For example, an LLM can infer what you mean even if you\u2019re imprecise \u2014 something plain Home Assistant can\u2019t do. \u201cPlay the punk album with the kid naked on the cover\u201d will be understood by an LLM but not by vanilla Home Assistant.<\/p>\n

You can also control the assistant\u2019s personality. Want responses in rhyme? In a formal tone? Like a pirate? You can. That goes far beyond what Amazon or Google allow.<\/p>\n

In the video below, GLaDOS<\/a> answers a request in my house:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/voice-pe-respondendo-glados.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

The level of control and possibilities are unmatched. Siri, Google Assistant or Alexa can control a limited set of smart devices, while Home Assistant offers virtually unlimited options thanks to the number of integrations already available and the project\u2019s open source nature, which allows building integrations when something you need isn\u2019t available.<\/p>\n

For example, at home I can tell the assistant to run the robot vacuum in specific rooms, ask if it\u2019s raining inside the house, or even ask when we last changed the baby\u2019s diaper.<\/p>\n

Having an AI connected to a search engine for everyday questions is useful too. It won\u2019t change your life, but it\u2019s handy from time to time.<\/p>\n

Not everything is rosy, of course. Using remote AIs means higher response times, so commands can take longer to complete.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have hard data, but it seems Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa servers have higher uptime. I used Siri for a year and don\u2019t recall outages. Claude, on the other hand, goes down every other day. It hasn\u2019t affected me yet, but the risk is higher.<\/p>\n

Privacy and control<\/h2>\n

The device offers privacy levels that let you decide what\u2019s comfortable. You can connect to a remote AI if you want, but you can also use local AIs or let Home Assistant handle everything with no external connections.<\/p>\n

The physical switch that cuts microphone power is a standout feature. It\u2019s not a software mute \u2014 the microphone connection is physically disconnected.<\/p>\n

The real cost<\/h2>\n

The device costs about USD 59, competitively priced with other assistants. But here\u2019s the reality: although the device is cheap, the real investment to make it truly useful is higher. Privacy and control aren\u2019t free.<\/p>\n

Using a remote AI means paying per interaction with the assistant, which can be an issue. Depending on your setup, you may also pay to generate the speech voice.<\/p>\n

That said, models like Claude Haiku or Gemini Flash are fast and very cheap. Depending on usage, monthly costs can be under USD 2.<\/p>\n

Running local AIs with Ollama is the best option for privacy and latency, but for Brazilian standards it\u2019s almost impossible due to the high cost of GPUs locally. It becomes viable if you have an Apple Silicon Mac Mini gathering dust.<\/p>\n

Local AIs that can reliably use external tools require more resources, so again cost is the limiting factor. A mainstream Alexa is cheaper in the long run if you ignore the hidden privacy cost.<\/p>\n

The music situation<\/h2>\n

This is where things get complicated. If you use streaming services for music, you\u2019ll be limited.<\/p>\n

Music support isn\u2019t native, but you can add it using a Music Assistant<\/a> server and a script<\/a> in Home Assistant so an LLM can search your library and play tracks. Voice support isn\u2019t official yet \u2014 it\u2019s a hack that sometimes works and sometimes doesn\u2019t, depending on how the AI fills required fields.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, you can create automations to play random tracks or specific albums, which helps. For example, I have an automation to play a random album and another to play the Kpop Demon Hunters<\/cite> OST (my wife is addicted).<\/p>\n

Audio quality<\/h2>\n

Another issue: connecting the assistant to your own speaker is almost mandatory, because the device\u2019s built-in speaker is among the worst I\u2019ve ever heard. Truly awful. The internal speaker is designed for voice, not music.<\/p>\n

Being able to use your existing speakers is fantastic for playback. The 3.5mm output with a dedicated DAC allows lossless output to external speakers. If you already own good speakers, Voice PE\u2019s audio shortcoming disappears.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

If you can run AI models locally, Voice PE is the best voice assistant on the market. The combination of privacy, control and flexibility is unbeatable.<\/p>\n

If you can only run everything remotely, I can\u2019t recommend it right now. Interaction costs, latency and dependence on external services take away much of the device\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n

That said, this is only a \u201cpreview\u201d and things are likely to improve. New models are released daily and running them locally is getting easier. A second version with better microphones and cheaper hardware for local AI would be very welcome.<\/p>\n

I used HomePods integrated with Home Assistant for a long time, but I bought Voice PE to have full voice control over the house. The reasons were many, but the main ones were greater device control, control over the assistant\u2019s personality, and the ability to connect real speakers.<\/p>\n

On a day-to-day basis, roughly 80% of what you\u2019d ask a voice assistant to do is already supported by other assistants.<\/p>\n

For my use, the downsides were acceptable for a \u201cpreview.\u201d Your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n

For smart home enthusiasts who already use Home Assistant and want to take part in developing an open source alternative to the big tech assistants, now is a great time to join. If you want something that \u201cjust works\u201d like an Alexa or Google Home, wait for the final release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to smart speakers, Amazon has Alexa, Apple has the HomePod, and Google has Nest. If you want something private \u2014 that runs locally \u2014 to control your home, there weren\u2019t many alternatives. Or there weren\u2019t until now. To fill that gap, Nabu Casa, the sponsor of the Home Assistant open source project, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":61259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_locale":"en_US","_original_post":""},"categories":[1575],"tags":[1833,1861,1923],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61261"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61261"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61266,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61261\/revisions\/61266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}