Ask HN: Any DIY open-source Alexa/Google alternatives?

#1

Post by personality0 » Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 11:32 AM UTC

I'm looking to replace my Alexa with an alternative where I can use a realtime model like Gemini or an STT -> LLM -> TTS pipeline. Should be easy to build with an Arduino or I'd even be happy buying an already made solution.

Basic functions should include playing Spotify, asking questions, settings timers.

Re: Ask HN: Any DIY open-source Alexa/Google alternatives?

#2

Post by Zekio » Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 11:48 AM UTC

I believe home assistant, is/was working on a physical products for this, but no idea if it available yet

Re: Ask HN: Any DIY open-source Alexa/Google alternatives?

#3

Post by iamflimflam1 » Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 12:34 PM UTC

The ESP32S3 has wake word support: https://components.espressif.com/components/espressif/esp-sr...

The rest is just some vibe coding…

Re: Ask HN: Any DIY open-source Alexa/Google alternatives?

#4

Post by wonger_ » Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 1:08 PM UTC

Perhaps https://rhasspy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Re: Ask HN: Any DIY open-source Alexa/Google alternatives?

#5

Post by worldsavior » Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 2:59 PM UTC

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #3

The ESP32S3 has wake word support: https://components.espressif.com/components/espressif/esp-sr... The rest is just some vibe coding…

If it's possible via vibe coding, then there are a few projects out there that do just exactly that.