Assist on Android with 2026.3 wake word: only works once

Troon · March 9, 2026, 2:01pm

I’m trying to turn a surplus Android phone into a voice assistant using local voice only (no cloud or LLM, just the new Android wake word feeding speech-to-phrase with piper talking back (config screenshot below).

This works perfectly… once. It responds to the “Hey Jarvis” wake word and opens an Assist session. I then say “Turn the hall light on”: it does this and responds.

That’s when the problem starts: the Assist session is still open but the microphone input is off. I can’t do anything without tapping the on-screen microphone button for it to listen to the next command, or clicking the back button to end the session and wait for a new wake word.

Any ideas how I can make this work touch-free?

tmjpugh · March 9, 2026, 2:38pm

That might be the “experimental” part of this.

I didn’t see similar issue reported. What is:

Phone maker
Phone model
Android OS version

It may be specific error of that phone model or OS version. Do you have another device to test with. I would get wake word detection not restarting. Not sure if there is log output for this.

EDIT
I look at wrong issues list. Should have looked at companion app issues. #2 from reported at link below looks to be same as your problem

github.com/home-assistant/android

Microwakeword Suggestions, Requests, and Issues

opened 12:19AM - 22 Feb 26 UTC

SmoochSmackers

bug enhancement Assist

I'm really not sure if this is a feature request or bug report. A little bit of …both? Please move if necessary. I've been testing out the recent release of the Android app's native wake word. Overall it's been great, it's only using about 15% of my battery, which isn't great, but is *far* better than the 25-50% of some of the 3rd party solutions I've tried in the past, and I am *unbelievably* grateful for the work ya'll have done to bring this feature to the app. That being said, I have a few suggestions: 1. **As silly as it sounds, the number one thing I *really* want here is the ability to implement a custom wake word. I'd love to be able to put a .tflite file (or analogue) onto my phone storage to use as the voice model (similar to the OpenWakeWord integration on the HA server)**. I've been chasing this ever since the ability to do so got stripped at some point after the galaxy s2 (or s4, I can't remember) era, I guess roughly when Google Assistant first came out and they decided they just *had* to have their branding in the wakeword for the rest of eternity. 2. **After the mobile app's transcript overlay pops up, the wake word no longer functions. I suspect the assistant pipeline (represented by the overlay) keeps control of the mic away from the wake word pipeline? It'd be nice to be able to use the wake word while the overlay is being displayed.** Rhasspy Mobile had a [somewhat relevant issue](https://github.com/Nailik/rhasspy_mobile/issues/557) with lack of ceding microphone control, which the developer was able to fix. As awesome and capable as Rhasspy Mobile is, I found it would periodically *eat* my battery and had to stop using it. I'm unsure if that unfortunate battery consumption had anything to do with the microphone control ceding fix. 3. **I currently have the app set to use "Okay Nabu" and have gotten quite a few false positives. A sensitivity dial in the options would be cool.** Thank you all so much for getting this feature implemented, your hard work is truly appreciated! **Home Assistant Android app version(s):** 2026.2.3-full (beta version) **Android version(s):** 16 (Build BP2A.250605.031.A3.S908USQS8GZA1) **Device model(s):** Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (SM-S908U) **Home Assistant version:** Install method - Home Assistant OS Core - 2026.2.3 Supervisor - 2026.02.2 Operating System - 17.1 Frontend - 20260128.6 **Last working Home Assistant release (if known):** N/A **Description of problem, include YAML if issue is related to notifications:** N/A **Companion App Logs:** N/A ``` ``` **Screenshot or video of problem:** N/A **Additional information:** N/A

EDIT2
Looks like fixed was merged 4 days ago. Have you updated the companion app lately

Troon · March 9, 2026, 3:00pm

Ah, thanks: I hadn’t seen that. I’m on the latest Companion app (2026.3.2-full) but the change hasn’t yet been merged. I’ll have to be patient.

Samsung Galaxy A40 running Android 11.

vrr · April 2, 2026, 5:47am

I tried wakeword with the latest HA release(2026.3.4) on android tablet, but the same issue, not able to wakeup for next time, as the assist UI stays on screen and not able to enable the mic to listen. anyone found the solution to this?

Troon · April 2, 2026, 8:37am

Please always use actual version numbers, as time moves on but your comment doesn’t change.

The latest official release at time of writing is 2026.3.2 released on 2 Mar 2026, before my post above. The fix has been merged into 2026.4.1, so we’re waiting for that to be officially released.

vrr · April 5, 2026, 4:04am

Still no luck… updated to 2026.4.1 but assist UI do not allow mic to enable for next wakeword.

nokarukuta · April 6, 2026, 9:43pm

Updated to 2026.4.2 and it does continue the same conversation after you use the wake word again. If the screen is locked it no longers gives you any indication that it’s heard you though.

gcinax1 · April 13, 2026, 11:39am

Hello, I have the same issue so we’re both waiting for a fix. In the meantime, one question: how did you make the “Hey Jarvis” wake word work? Apparently for me only “Ok Nabu” works and not only on the tablet but on any audio satellite that I put together, also those ESP32-based. Thanks!

gcinax1 · April 20, 2026, 8:21am

I am using 2026.4.3 and it’s not working yet. I haveto manually close the input popup to make it listen again. Any clue? Thanks!

Troon · April 20, 2026, 11:05am

I haven’t seen 2026.4 via the Play Store yet, so haven’t tried it.