Best option for local music playback via Home Assistant and Google Assistant?

Configuration Voice Assistant
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Hi all,

My single goal in setting up a Home Assistant server was to regain the ability to call for local music from Google Assistant. I haven’t acheived it yet. My latest attempt was with forked-daap. It would do playback control, but not track/playlist selection. I’ve heard Logitech Media Server could be the answer, and I’ve tried that, but never truly finished the setup. I was also referred to the Plex integration, which sounded ideal as I already run a Plex server, but my attempts at that were so long ago I don’t remember why I abandoned it.

I’m beginning to see I have likely been missing the bit that tells GA how to talk to whatever my media device is (and maybe any one of those options would be great if I had the right conversation tools.)

So I’ve started again from scratch. I’ve got a clean(ish) install of Hass.io x64 on a RPi 3+ (would x32 have been a better choice?) I’ve got the bare minimum of add-ons installed (File Editor, ssh Terminal, Samba) and I’ve used datactl to move my data files to an external SSD. I also have the GA integrations setup on the Google side, but have not made the HA-side configs yet on this new install (it was working.) What’s your advice on where to go from here?

Thanks for your insight. :slight_smile:

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The ability to send Plex music directly to Cast devices was added a while back as documented here: Google Cast - Home Assistant. Have you tried that method?

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Thank you for replying! :slight_smile: I have been looking through that documentation again this weekend, but I’m lost. :confused: First, where do I put the required code? Directly in config yaml? In another or new yaml? Do I need to manually create a media_content_id for every song/album in my library? How are the JSON files created? Where should they be stored and what should they be called? Once this is done, will I be able to use voice control, or will I then need to configure DialogFlow?

I’m keen to do the work required, just not sure exactly what the work entails! If there is a more detailed “Plex for HA Dummies” tutorial out there, please feel free to point me to it!

Thanks again for your response. I haven’t had a lot of traction on this forum, so I really appreciate you taking the time. :slight_smile:

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OMG, I think I’ve got it! Plex with Plex Assistant and IFTTT for the win! Thank you again for answering this dummy’s question!

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Maybe good if you can share what you’ve found, so other people in the future can build it too with your shared knowledge.

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If I ever perfect my setup I’ll be sure to. :slight_smile: