Home Assistant launches new privacy first voice assistant hardware

Home Assistant has launched new hardware in the form of Voice Preview Edition (PE). The gadget is billed as a smart home voice assistant focusing on increased privacy. It is designed specifically to work with the open source Home Assistant software and supports many languages.

The core benefit over other similar devices, like the Amazon Echo Pop with Alexa (curr. $17.99 at Amazon), is improved privacy. There is no data harvesting, and you can choose to run the voice assistant locally or on a private cloud. Apparently, the gadget arrives as a Preview Edition as it does not currently offer functions which users might expect, like asking questions about the weather or sports. However, the company indicates that it is working on this. In the meantime, users can set up an integration between Home Assistant Voice and AI models like ChatGPT or Google Gemini. Wake phrases include Hey Jarvis, Okay Nabu and Hey Mycroft. Alternatively, users can choose to program their own wake words.

The Voice is a small box measuring 84 x 84 x 21 mm (~3.3 x 3.3 x 0.8 inches) with a button, a rotary dial and a mute switch. Plus, there is an integrated speaker, a dual array microphone, a 3.5mm audio jack and an LED light ring that illuminates when the device is listening. You can now buy Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition in countries like the US, the UK, and Australia for $59/£56/A$109.