How to get Voice Asst Preview to do useful things

Configuration Voice Assistant
1

Last week I removed all my Alexas due to the complete lack of privacy Bezos has enabled.

I purchased a HA Voice Assistant preview edition to handle a few of the most basic features of Alexa. I am fully aware it can’t replace Alexa and I’m OK with that if the data stays local. And I’m not going to setup a full AI server as that’s just nuts IMHO.

I followed the VA instructions and easily got it to turn a light on/off and create a timer.

Now for the next level, I need to be able to cancel a timer. Anyone have a hint you can throw my way?

The next step is to be able to add items to the Shopping List. I have the Shopping List Device Exposed to Assist. But I don’t know the magic phrase to get it to add anything to the list.

I’ve searched all over and watched at least an hour of mostly useless YouTubes. I’m hoping someone can help me out.

I am running HA on an RPi4 and the response time is just fine for setting timers and turning lights on/off. I removed most of the Devices Exposed as I read that fewer devices will yield faster response. Seems all 96 devices were installed by default. I am running the latest HA.

2

Hi

Just look at the sentences repo and you will find the “Magic” phrase

intents/sentences at main · home-assistant/intents

Example : shopping_list_HassShoppingListAddItem.yaml

      - sentences:
          - add <item> to <my_list>
          - put <item> (on|in) <my_list>
3

Are you using the built-in shopping list integration? Not sure if the built-in commands will work otherwise.

Timer commands are in the built-in sentences list too, but unlike the shopping list, I don’t think they connect with entities in HA - so you can’t display the timer on a dashboard, for example. They seem to run in Voice PE itself. However, you should be able to say “Start/Set a timer for xx minutes”, “Pause the timer”, “How much time is left…” and so on.

Closed my Amazon account last week. Shopping without a safety net! :grin: