My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

Post by jcims » Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 2:21 PM UTC

hamdingers wrote: post #10

If you're less concerned about privacy, I use Gemini 2.5 Flash for this and it's exceptionally good and fast as a HA assistant while being much cheaper than the electricity that would be needed to keep a 3090 awake. The thing that kills this for me (and they even mentioned it) is wake word detection. I have both the HA voice preview and FPH Satellite1 devices, plus have experimented with a few other options like a Ra…

Post by daveoc64 » Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

Post by alex_young » Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 2:58 PM UTC

dewey wrote: post #2

Their first version is most likely already 10x better than Siri. > Understands when it is in a particular area and does not ask “which light?” when there is only one light in the area, but does correctly ask when there are multiple of the device type in the given area.

  >“Siri, cancel the second timer”
  “You have 2 timers running, would you like me to cancel one of them?”
  >“Yes”
  “Yes is an English rock band from the 70s…”
  >“Siri, please cancel the timer with 2 minutes and 10 seconds on it”
  “Would you like me to cancel the timer with 2 minutes and 8 seconds on it?”
  >“Yes”
  “Yes is an English rock band from the 70s…”

Post by voidUpdate » Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 3:04 PM UTC

hamdingers wrote: post #14

voidUpdate wrote: post #4

Do people like talking to voice assistants? I've used one occasionally (mostly for timers when I'm cooking), but most of the time it would be faster for me to just do it myself, and feels much less awkward than talking to empty air, asking it to do things for me. It might be because I just really don't like making more noise than I have to (Yes, I appreciate that some people may be disabled in such a way that it make…

I consider each time I need to pull out my phone and "do it myself" to be a failure of my smart home system. If a light cannot be automatically on when I need it (like a motion sensor) or controlled with a dedicated button within arms reach (like a remote on my desk) then the third best option is one that lets me control it without interrupting what I'm doing, moving from where I am, using my hands, or possessing any…

Post by abroadwin » Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 3:06 PM UTC

alex_young wrote: post #15

dewey wrote: post #2

Their first version is most likely already 10x better than Siri. > Understands when it is in a particular area and does not ask “which light?” when there is only one light in the area, but does correctly ask when there are multiple of the device type in the given area.

One of my favorite episodes: I set 2 timers for the same thing somehow. I then tried to cancel one of them. >“Siri, cancel the second timer” “You have 2 timers running, would you like me to cancel one of them?” >“Yes” “Yes is an English rock band from the 70s…” >“Siri, please cancel the timer with 2 minutes and 10 seconds on it” “Would you like me to cancel the timer with 2 minutes and 8 seconds on it?” >“Yes” “Yes i…