Introducing View Assist
Earlier this year I was getting pretty fed up with my Amazon Echo Show devices always showing me things other than what I wanted to see which was mainly the clock display. I started work on trying to out fit an old Android tablet with a replica of the Echo device’s clock screen and started integrating Assist custom sentences. I got things working pretty well and decided to enter the Voice Assistant contest and was honored when I won my category.
Since the contest I’ve been working on extending the capabilities of View Assist (VA for short) and started posting Youtube videos to compliment the written instructions posted on the View Assist Wiki. Know that I am not a professional programmer or know much about frontend design. Despite that and with the help of the good folks on Discord on the Home Assistant and the View Assist Discord server the View Assist project is growing daily with more folks coming onboard to add additional functionality.
What is View Assist
^^^ Click for demo video on Youtube ^^^
^^ imgur gallery link ^^
View Assist as a collection of configuration files, a custom dashboard with custom views, device control automations, and custom sentence blueprints that add additional functionality. VA has been created in a fashion where you can pick and choose what pieces you want to use and adapt it to your needs. It has been created in a way that it can be integrated into your own existing dashboards with the benefit of adding additional functionality.
One of the things that makes VA unique is that any of the VA satellite devices can interact with each other while also acting indepently from each other. As an example, we have a blueprint that will broadcast a text-to-speech announcement to all VA satellite devices. Satellite devices can be both visual devices like the Android devices in the demo video above but can also be ESPHome voice satellite devices as well. You can mix and match device types as desired taking advantage of the network of satellite devices. View Assist does not require a graphical display.
Another great find was when someone suggested using a $40 (!!) Lenovo ThinkSmart View device with the project. This device is a game changer as it integrates an 8" display with a built in speaker all in a nice looking case which supports both landscape and portrait mode. This gem of a device has been discussed on these forums previously and is definitely worth looking at for View Assist or many other project ideas.
What can be done with View Assist
After the initial configuration, adding custom views and custom sentence automations is easy. Adding the views is as easy as adding an additional view and copy pasting in the code provided on Github and documented on the VA wiki. Adding custom sentence automations is even easier as all you need to do is click on the blueprint button to import it and then fill out the configuration options in the blueprint.
While View Assist is still in the early days, some of the extended functionality provided includes:
- Broadcast messages to other View Assist devices
- Search Wikipedia for general knowledge web searches
- Show webpages of your choosing with ideas like showing your self-hosted recipe site, your favorite news site, etc
- Interact with lists like your shopping and todo lists. This works for standard Home Assistant lists as well as those integrated through AnyList, Todoist and probably others as well
- Other blueprints exists for things like getting weather information, time information, setting modes, etc
Additionally, a Wishlist of requests has been created with many of these items in development and close to release
How do I get started
The easiest way to get started with View Assist is to go to our wiki page and work from top to bottom. I do ask that any support requests be made in our discussions area or better yet our View Assist Discord server and not on this thread. Know that we are improving things on a daily basis and that the install, while not overly difficult, is not as easy as going to HACS and clicking a few times. You may need a bit of patience and attention to detail but lots of users have already onboarded and you can too. We have the friendliest Discord members so help is readily available if you get stuck
How can I help
I thought you’d never ask! We are on the look out with folks who can help improve the dashboard side of View Assist as well as folks who want to bring their custom automations and other skills. In addition, even less technical folks can help by subscribing to our Youtube channel, liking our videos and making comments so we can gain more exposure. Starring our GitHub repo is also a small way to help us get even more exposure which should bring additional folks to help with the project
I hope that some of you will find this project something that would enhance your use of Home Assistant and perhaps get you involved with the Assist voice assistant. The good folks at Nabu Casa have done an incredible job at getting voice going and I’d like to thank Paulus for his vision on this, Mike Hansen for his incredible work as well as J Lo and all the others that are making Assist voice assistant a viable option to the commercial giants.
Hope to see you guys soon. Let us know how it goes!