{"id":13169,"date":"2025-02-27T11:44:03","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T18:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/?p=13169"},"modified":"2025-02-27T13:50:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T20:50:57","slug":"home-assistant-voice-preview-edition-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/home-assistant-voice-preview-edition-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Affiliate Disclosure: This page has affiliate links, which earn us commission at no cost to you.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"toc_container\" class=\"toc_white no_bullets\"><p class=\"toc_title\">Table of Contents<\/p><ul class=\"toc_list\"><li><a href=\"#Introduction\">Introduction<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#The_Hardware_8211_Preview_Edition\">The Hardware &#8211; Preview Edition<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Keeping_It_Local\">Keeping It Local<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Connecting_the_Pipes\">Connecting the Pipes<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#What_It_Can_and_Cant_Do\">What It Can (and Can\u2019t) Do<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#The_Future\">The Future<\/a><ul><li><a href=\"#Who_Should_Buy_It\">Who Should Buy It?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<h2><span id=\"Introduction\">Introduction<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a smart speaker with a completely local voice assistant. It\u2019s called the Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition, and it\u2019s pretty sweet! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HA-Voice-Preview-2-min-1024x681.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13172\" width=\"479\" height=\"317\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ameridroid.com\/products\/home-assistant-voice-preview-edition?ref=jpvafmyq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/v1_button_check-it-out-compressor.jpg\" rel='magnific' alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10050\" width=\"178\" height=\"35\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>(If you&#8217;d rather watch the video version of this article, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/L4ONmyjG6ec?si=8tcoQ8ZCWtrY0xHI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">head to YouTube<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But this is probably the most difficult review I\u2019ve ever had to make. You\u2019ll see why in a second\u2014it\u2019s both amazing and terrible at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2><span id=\"The_Hardware_8211_Preview_Edition\">The Hardware &#8211; Preview Edition<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m going to break this review into two main parts: hardware and software. Each is drastically different, so let\u2019s start with the hardware, since things will get a little dicey later on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If an Echo Dot and an old-school Apple iPod had a baby\u2026 and then gave it up for adoption so everything could be open source&#8230; you\u2019d get this! The top ring rotates like an old iPod, adjusting the volume with a satisfying click and an LED ring that visually indicates the volume level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s an intuitive and sleek design. The middle button activates the voice assistant or stops it, and it can also act as a smart button. Double, triple, or long presses can trigger automations, making it versatile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two microphones on top pick up voices well, even with loud music playing. A selection of wake words is available, and I particularly like \u201cHey Jarvis\u201d because, let\u2019s be honest, who doesn\u2019t want their own Jarvis?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The LED ring isn\u2019t just for show. A long press of the middle button and a twist of the wheel changes its color, and it also integrates into Home Assistant as a controllable RGB light\u2014perfect for automations. For example, if you haven\u2019t taken your medication, the light turns a certain color as a visual reminder. After taking them, a double-press of the button turns it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s a physical mute switch on the side, but the microphones can also be muted digitally, which is useful for automations. While the speaker is decent for spoken responses, it\u2019s not great for playing music. However, a <strong>3.5mm stereo output jack<\/strong> allows for external speakers, which is a nice touch. Powering the device is simple with <strong>USB-C<\/strong>, making it easy to integrate with modern setups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HA-Voice-Preview-min-1024x545.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13174\" width=\"496\" height=\"264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HA-Voice-Preview-min-1024x545.png 1024w, https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HA-Voice-Preview-min-300x160.png 300w, https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HA-Voice-Preview-min-1536x817.png 1536w, https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HA-Voice-Preview-min-2048x1090.png 2048w, https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HA-Voice-Preview-min.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 496px) 100vw, 496px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ameridroid.com\/products\/home-assistant-voice-preview-edition?ref=jpvafmyq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/v1_button_check-it-out-compressor.jpg\" rel='magnific' alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10050\" width=\"178\" height=\"35\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall, I love the minimalist design, intuitive controls, and price ($60)\u2014competitive with other small smart speakers. Props to the Home Assistant (Nabu Casa) team!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span id=\"Keeping_It_Local\">Keeping It Local<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Before we dive deep into the software, let\u2019s talk about what makes this smart speaker different: <strong>local processing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most smart speakers send voice commands to the cloud for processing. It\u2019s fast, but there\u2019s no way to disable this\u2014everything you say is sent to a company\u2019s servers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition, that\u2019s not the case. You have complete control, and everything can stay in your house with no cloud dependency. I can give a voice command, it gets processed locally, and my lights turn off&#8230;no internet needed! So for those who always comment, \u201cYour smart home will break if the internet goes down,\u201d take that! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But hold on! Before you start throwing away your existing smart speakers\u2026 there are a few things you need to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span id=\"Connecting_the_Pipes\">Connecting the Pipes<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Home Assistant makes setting up the <a href=\"https:\/\/ameridroid.com\/products\/home-assistant-voice-preview-edition?ref=jpvafmyq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Voice Preview Edition<\/a> pretty easy, especially if you use <strong>Home Assistant Cloud<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want it to work 100% locally, you need to understand how a voice command is processed: first, Speech to Text converts spoken words into digital text. Then, the Conversation Agent processes the text command and decides what to do. Finally, Text to Speech generates a spoken response when needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ameridroid.com\/products\/home-assistant-voice-preview-edition?ref=jpvafmyq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/VoicePreviewEdition-Packaging-2.Top_1000x1000_crop_center-min.jpeg\" rel='magnific' alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13175\" width=\"325\" height=\"325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/VoicePreviewEdition-Packaging-2.Top_1000x1000_crop_center-min.jpeg 1000w, https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/VoicePreviewEdition-Packaging-2.Top_1000x1000_crop_center-min-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/VoicePreviewEdition-Packaging-2.Top_1000x1000_crop_center-min-150x150.jpeg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Each of these components can be customized. For instance, you can swap out the conversation agent for <strong>ChatGPT<\/strong> to improve understanding. Home Assistant can first try to process locally (e.g., \u201cturn on the lights\u201d) and only send complex commands (e.g., \u201cIt\u2019s kind of dark in here\u201d) to an external AI like ChatGPT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you run everything locally, you\u2019ll need to install add-ons for Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech. On a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3EV96vj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Raspberry Pi<\/a>, this is slow (4-5 seconds per response). On a more powerful machine, it can be as fast as 1 second. Using Home Assistant Cloud ($5\/month) speeds things up and supports ongoing development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it\u2019s refreshing to have options instead of being forced into a subscription!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span id=\"What_It_Can_and_Cant_Do\">What It Can (and Can\u2019t) Do<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that everything is set up, what can it do? Well\u2026 buckle up! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you expect this to work like an <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4bog2gC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Amazon Echo<\/a> with thousands of skills, you\u2019re going to be disappointed. Right now, it can control smart home devices in Home Assistant and set timers. That\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even controlling smart home devices is tricky. If you ask for the weather, it won\u2019t know unless you explicitly enable the weather entity. I exposed my Spotify instance, but couldn\u2019t get it to play music. Even basic media controls had issues, like \u201cskip song\u201d working inconsistently. Commands like \u201cplay\u201d to resume music don\u2019t work. You have to say \u201cresume\u201d or \u201cunpause.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a command isn\u2019t recognized, it responds with: <em>\u201cSorry, I couldn\u2019t understand that.\u201d<\/em> But that\u2019s just its default response when it doesn\u2019t know what to do! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since this is a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ameridroid.com\/products\/home-assistant-voice-preview-edition?ref=jpvafmyq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Preview Edition<\/a><\/strong>, I\u2019m trying not to be too critical. If you expect this to compete with Amazon Echo, you\u2019ll be extremely disappointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span id=\"The_Future\">The Future<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Is it all doom and gloom? No way! The Home Assistant open-source community is thriving, and this device will only improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HA-Voice-Preview-3-min-1024x670.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13177\" width=\"277\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HA-Voice-Preview-3-min-1024x670.png 1024w, https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HA-Voice-Preview-3-min-300x196.png 300w, https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HA-Voice-Preview-3-min-1536x1005.png 1536w, https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HA-Voice-Preview-3-min.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 277px) 100vw, 277px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In the future, the Voice Preview Edition will get a big update: it will be able to start a conversation with you. For example, if it\u2019s really bright in the room, it could ask if you want to lower the shades. If you say yes, it does it. This makes smart homes feel more natural\u2014like a real assistant rather than just a command system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So back to my original statement: <strong>This was one of the hardest reviews I\u2019ve ever done.<\/strong> On one hand, the hardware is great, local privacy is a huge win, and the future is exciting. On the other, voice commands are frustrating, music control is complicated, and it\u2019s slow unless you upgrade your system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3><span id=\"Who_Should_Buy_It\">Who Should Buy It?<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I recommend the Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition if you\u2019re a developer or tinkerer willing to deal with its limitations. It&#8217;s fun to tinker with and try it out hands-on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, I\u2019m excited to see where it goes as more people get their hands on it! If you&#8217;re interested, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/ameridroid.com\/products\/home-assistant-voice-preview-edition?ref=jpvafmyq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">buy it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Affiliate Disclosure: This page has affiliate links, which earn us commission at no cost to you.&nbsp; Table of ContentsIntroductionThe Hardware &#8211; Preview EditionKeeping It LocalConnecting the PipesWhat It Can (and Can\u2019t) DoThe FutureWho Should Buy It? Introduction This is a <a href=\"https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/home-assistant-voice-preview-edition-review\/\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">\n<p>Read more &#8250;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition Review | Smart Home Solver<\/title>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smarthomesolver.com\/reviews\/home-assistant-voice-preview-edition-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition Review | Smart Home Solver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Affiliate Disclosure: This page has affiliate links, which earn us commission at no cost to you.&nbsp; Table of ContentsIntroductionThe Hardware &#8211; Preview EditionKeeping It LocalConnecting the PipesWhat It Can (and Can\u2019t) DoThe FutureWho Should Buy It? 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