This is the long-awaited Home Assistant Voice PE. Finally, it’s here—the voice assistant from Home Assistant that is supposed to make Google Home, Siri, and Alexa obsolete. But is that really the case? In this video, I’ll share my experiences with you.
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Ed
Introduction
A few weeks ago, the Home Assistant Voice PE was secretly sent to all official Home Assistant content creators. We were among the first to try out the Voice PE and share our experiences in a special Discord channel. By the way, PE stands for Preview Edition. I was really excited when I received the Voice PE, but it’s not perfect. I’ll tell you more about that later.
Unboxing
I thought the box would be quite large, but it’s just a small box measuring 9.5 x 9 cm. Inside the box, you’ll find a sticker, a card with a QR code for accessing installation instructions, the warranty terms, and, of course, the Voice PE itself. The Voice PE is only 8.5 x 8.5 cm in size, with a USB-C port and an audio-out jack. There’s also a button to mute the microphone. In the center, there’s a white button and a rotary dial that let you adjust the volume and the color of the indicator LED. That’s all there is to it.
I couldn’t imagine the volume of the built-in speaker being loud enough, but trust me, it gets very loud.
Installing it is very simple. Once you connect the Voice PE with a USB-C cable (which, by the way, isn’t included), it’s immediately detected by Home Assistant. You just need to click “Add” and then “Submit” to start the installation process. The interface will then ask for your WiFi SSID and password. After that, you need to press the button on the Voice PE to authorize it, and it gets added to your network. In the next step, you add the Voice PE to ESPHome, and it will automatically update itself.
Once that’s done, you can try out the wake word. I won’t say it out loud here since it might trigger a voice assistant in your home. And with that, the Voice PE is installed. The installation process is super simple.
In a previous video, I explained in detail how to set up the voice assistant software in Home Assistant so it works either locally or via Home Assistant Cloud, as well as how to use ChatGPT to control your home. Be sure to check out that video too, especially if you want to use ChatGPT or OpenAI. The link is in the description of this video.
Testing the Voice PE
With the Home Assistant Voice Assistants, you can control devices in your home directly using your voice, such as turning a light on or off. You can also make use of so-called Large Language Models. Personally, I use OpenAI or ChatGPT. That’s when things get really exciting because you can not only ask the voice assistant general questions but also request it to adjust the colors of your lights based on specific events. And you don’t even need to create scenes in Home Assistant for this. I’ll now briefly show you a few examples of commands you can give to the Voice PE.
Additionally, you can use the Voice PE as a media player, streaming music to it via Music Assistant, for instance.
Where to Buy?
So, what does the Voice PE cost, and where can you buy it? When I made this video, the final price wasn’t known yet, but the Home Assistant team told me that the cost would be around $60 USD. You can find the exact price in the description of this video.
At the time of making this video, the final URL where you can purchase the Voice PE wasn’t confirmed yet either, but you’ll also find that link in the description of this video!
Conclusion
And now, my conclusion about the Voice PE. I’m going to be honest with you. The Voice PE is not yet ready to replace Google Home, Siri, or Alexa. There are still quite a few software updates needed. It often fails to understand what you mean or can’t execute certain commands. For example, I asked it to adjust the lighting for a romantic evening, but it kept saying it couldn’t change the colors. However, when I asked it to set the colors to match Christmas, it worked just fine. Personally, I don’t mind if it doesn’t understand me sometimes, but my housemates are far less patient with it.
Another thing to consider is that if you want to use OpenAI, you’ll need a subscription. The cost is only a few cents per request though. Today, I tested it intensively with 263 requests to OpenAI, which cost me 81 cents. For Google Home, I don’t have to pay anything yet, but I’ve read on sites like The Verge that they’re also planning to charge for AI functionality.
So, yes, the Home Assistant Voice PE is a fun gadget for tech enthusiasts, but I don’t think it’s quite ready for the less tech-savvy consumer. And if you want to keep your housemates happy, I’d recommend sticking with Google Home, Siri, or Alexa for now.
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