[App] On-Device Assist Satellite

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On-Device Local Voice Assistant

Hey Home Assistant users and staff, I wanted to start off by thanking everyone for the work they've done to make HA what it is, I use it every day and I can't be happier.

I've finally launched an App Repo for an app I've been working on for quite some time, that finally came to fruition and released v1.0.0: The Local Satellite Voice Assistant.

The Problem

I personally have a decently small and open apartment, and I'm sure like many others, I run my Home Assistant off of an old Dell Thin Client that I got for 50 bucks. I really only need one microphone and one speaker to use Assist, and I didn't want to get into ESPHome or purchase a pre-made satellite. I wanted to run Assist directly on the machine, using the machine's USB mic and speaker setup.

Before, the only option for people like me was The official HA Addon: assist-microphone, but this uses wyoming and doesn't support any of the newer Assist features like continued conversation, etc.
I wanted more than that so I decided to make Local Satellite Voice Assistant.

The App

So how does it work?

I use a containerized release of OHF-Voice's own linux-voice-assistant (I'd link it but I can only put two links for my first post :slight_smile: ), forced to run as an HA app. The linux-voice-assistant itself is actually a containerized version of the latest ESPHome satellite implementation, so as long as that stays relevant, this should stay up to date!

How do I use it?

  1. Navigate to Settings -> Apps -> Install app -> (Three Dots in top right) -> Repositories -> Add -> and enter my App Repo URL: GitHub - zaz969/ha-addons: Zaz969's Home Assistant Addons · GitHub

  2. After this, Install "Local Satellite Voice Assistant"

  3. Configure the app by going to the configuration tab, and making sure the Audio Devices at the bottom are set correctly.

  4. Then start the app.

  5. Now, navigate to Settings -> Integrations, and you should see the ESPHome Integration pop up with the Local Assistant auto discovered.
    a. If you don't, Add the ESPHome integration and enter your host device's IP ADDRESS. Unfortunately "localhost" or the hostname of your host device will not work.

  6. Enter the port you configured in the app and go through the ESPHome Assist Satellite configuration as normal.

After all that, you should be able to use your HA Device as a Local Assist Satellite.

Please give it a try and let me know how it works for you, if there's anything that I can improve on, anything you like, etc.

Thanks!

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Have you seen that they have now released an new official Assist Satellite app/addon for a newer alternative and more features (which for now runs inside Home Assistant Operating System):

That in turn is based/dependent on Linux Voice Assistant runtime (a.k.a. LVA) that uses ESPHome protocol, (which is a project that you can also use stand-alone without Home Assistat OS):

Also note old HA Addon: assist-microphone has officially been deprecated and it now refers to it.

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Dang ain't that funny, they basically did the same thing I did lol, containerized their Linux Voice Assistant for use as an app. Practically around the same date I released too.

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