Key Takeaways
1. Increased Accessibility: Voice chapter 9 aims to make a fully local voice assistant more accessible, now recommending Speech-to-Phrase for better performance.
2. Faster Speech Recognition: Speech-to-Phrase can transcribe speech in under a second on Raspberry Pi 4 and as quickly as 150 ms on Raspberry Pi 5.
3. Limited Voice Commands: The initial version of Speech-to-Phrase supports a limited set of commands, including controlling smart lights, media players, setting timers, and checking the weather.
4. New Features: Voice chapter 9 introduces broadcasts for sharing messages across devices and voice commands for adjusting smart thermostats.
5. Analog Phone Integration: Users can make calls to analog phones and leave voicemails, enhancing functionality with notifications like washing machine cycle completions.
Home Assistant has unveiled Voice chapter 9. This new version comes after the introduction of the Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition hardware back in December. Additionally, it follows the broader release of Home Assistant 2025.2 from early February.
Enhanced Voice Assistant Accessibility
Voice chapter 9 aims to make a fully local voice assistant more available to a wider audience. In the past, the company advised users to utilize the Whisper Speech-to-Text tool. This tool, when utilized on a Raspberry Pi 4, took about five seconds to transcribe speech, yielding mixed outcomes. Due to this, the company suggested using at least an Intel N100. Now, Home Assistant points users toward Speech-to-Phrase, which will be available in English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian at launch.
Improved Performance on Raspberry Pi
Speech-to-Phrase can turn speech into text in under a second on a Raspberry Pi 4 or Home Assistant Green (currently $120 at Amazon). For those using a Raspberry Pi 5, speeds can be as quick as 150 ms. However, it’s important to note that Speech-to-Phrase has its limitations, supporting a reduced number of voice commands right out of the box. These commands include controlling smart lights and media players, as well as setting timers and checking the weather.
New Features in Voice Chapter 9
According to the release notes for 2025.2, Voice chapter 9 introduces support for broadcasts, allowing users to share messages across all connected devices, and the capacity to adjust a smart thermostat’s temperature using voice commands. Additionally, users can now make calls to their analog phones and leave voicemails, such as notifications that the washing machine has completed its cycle. For more detailed information, you can check the full release notes for Voice chapter 9 on the Home Assistant blog.
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