I’ve been working on a Home Assistant add-on that lets you talk to Assist over a regular phone call using Twilio.
The idea is simple:
- Call a phone number
- Speak naturally with Assist
- Run automations, control devices, ask questions, etc.
- No smart speaker required
Some of the things it currently supports:
- Speech-to-text and text-to-speech pipeline integration
- PIN protection for incoming calls
- Works with existing Assist agents
- Designed as a Home Assistant add-on for HAOS
- Remote access from any phone
- Experimental speaker/voice recognition support is being explored
A few example use cases:
- Calling home while driving to control devices
- Helping family members interact with Home Assistant without apps
- Checking status or running routines from outside the house
- Backup voice access when internet assistants are unavailable
Right now I’m mainly trying to gauge community interest and gather feedback before making the project public.
A few questions:
- Would you use something like this?
- What features would you want most?
- Would you prefer local-only processing where possible, or are cloud services like Twilio acceptable for this use case?
- Any concerns about security, latency, or usability?
If there’s enough interest, I’ll clean things up, improve documentation, and release it publicly.
