this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025
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homeassistant
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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io
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I can’t stand voice assistants. I have ZigBee switches all over the house for lights, or I control things directly from my phone. Works really well for me!
I have Z-Wave switches but being able to make a voice command like "Nabu, setup to watch TV in the living room." is faster and easier than pulling out my phone, unlocking it, opening the HA app, and then triggering the "Watch TV in the Living Room" automation and that's assuming my phone is actually with me. I often roam the house without my phone, relying on my Smart Watch to alert me to text messages and phone calls.
Here's another one. I'm taking laundry downstairs but the stairs lights are off and so are the basement lights. My hands are full carrying a basket of laundry so flipping the switches or using my phone to do it means that I have to set the basket down. Instead I say "Nabu, turn on the stairs and basement lights." and the lights turn on for me. When I'm done and back upstairs I can either wait for the motion timer to turn them off or simply say "Nabu, turn off of the stairs and basement lights." EZ-PZ and so convenient.
Different strokes for different folks and all that, I'm not judging how other people live, but I really don't understand why people choose to do without voice control when they have an HA setup and the ability to run it all local.