Setting Up a Basic Voice Assistant in Home Assistant
Home Assistant makes it easy to add a voice assistant to your smart home, letting you control devices, check sensor data, or trigger automations by speaking. This guide walks you through setting up a simple voice assistant using Home Assistant Cloud and the default Home Assistant agent. You can always change the voice, speech-to-text (STT), text-to-speech (TTS), or even the assistant's intelligence later - this is just the best starting point for most users.
Why Start with the Basics?
While it's possible to create very advanced assistants - using powerful Large Language Models (LLMs) that understand complex natural language and can hold conversations - most people just want to turn on a light, ask for the weather, or run a routine. The basic setup is quick, reliable, and doesn't require extra hardware or subscriptions (beyond the optional Home Assistant Cloud trial).
- Easy to change later: Home Assistant makes it simple to swap out voices, switch to a different STT or TTS provider, or even upgrade to a more advanced agent or language model in the future.
- Advanced methods available: If you want your assistant to answer general questions, chat, or handle complicated tasks, you can later add integrations for LLMs like OpenAI, Google Gemini, or open-source options - guides for this are coming soon.
What You'll Need
- A working Home Assistant installation
- A microphone and speaker connected to your Home Assistant device (for example, a Raspberry Pi, or a supported ESPHome device)
- (Optional) A Home Assistant Cloud account for the easiest setup (free trial available)
Step 1: Enable Home Assistant Cloud
- Go to Settings > Home Assistant Cloud in the sidebar.
If you haven't already, sign up for a free trial or log in. - Cloud speech-to-text and text-to-speech will be enabled by default, making setup much simpler.
Step 2: Add a Voice Assistant Device
- Go to Settings > Devices & Services and click Add Device.
- Choose Voice Assistant (or "Assist" device).
- Follow the prompts to set up your microphone and speaker, then assign the device to a room if you wish.
Home Assistant's built-in agent (the "Home Assistant" agent) will be selected by default. This lets you control your smart home out of the box.
Step 3: Test Your Voice Assistant
- Say "Hey, Assistant" (or press the button on your device, depending on the hardware).
- Try commands like "Turn on the living room light" or "What's the temperature outside?"
- If you run into issues, check your microphone and speaker settings under the device options.
What Next?
- You can easily change the voice or language under Settings > Voice Assistants.
- Switch to different STT or TTS providers, including free and local options, as your needs grow.
- Try out more advanced "agents" or Large Language Models for smarter conversation - guides on these are coming soon.
Tip: Don't be afraid to experiment - Home Assistant is designed to be flexible!
Summary
That's it! With just a few steps, you have a basic, working voice assistant in Home Assistant. You can always customize or expand your assistant's abilities later, whether you want to change how it speaks or make it a lot smarter.