Multi-language entity_id: how? Aliases?

Feature Requests
1

I do have a multilingual family (english and italian). Soon my Google Home/Assistant will work also in Italian.

At the moment all my entity_id are in english language (Bedroom light and so on); in the future I would like to have it multiple language (in my case English and Itaian).

How can I accomplish this? Maybe is possible for Home Assistant to have aliases?

2

Youā€™d be looking for the friendly name instead. Entities can only have one name, which is used in all the automations (etc), however you can use a friendly name in whatever language you want.

3

I need 2 friendly name for same entity_id

4

In addition, you can set nicknames for Home devices in the Google Home app. The Home/Assistant responds to both the known name and nickname. You may be able to name each device in HASS in one language and then set the Home nickname for the same entity to be in the other language.

5

Short answer - you canā€™t.

Entities have one ID, and one Friendly Name. You could fake some with templates to give the appearance of a different friendly name, but thatā€™s it.

6

thatā€™s why I put it in ā€œfeature requestā€. Be able to name entity_id with 2 names

7

I am sure many in the USA use double language English and Spanish mostly

8

From a week or so ago the interface became translatable, so this feature is certainly in someoneā€™s list of ideas, but thereā€™s plenty of changes needed, before this is possible. I honestly think this is not anywhere in the near future.

9

Specifying alias for entities would be really useful for integration with voice recognition bots as well, because you donā€™t want to use the entity_id or friendly name all the time.

1 Like
10

+1 is it possible to have this feature?

1 Like
11

I see, itā€™s an old topic, but +1 for multilingual alias names
Maybe ā€˜aliasā€™ as default, ā€˜alias_itā€™, ā€˜alias_enā€™, ā€˜alias_huā€™ for defined other languages? Frontend could use the users preferred language, or if not defined, then the default.

2 Likes
12

Iā€™d like to see this feature as well

13

I just started using Home assistant en have 1 entity in my cloud.
My config is one of packages (ie somewhat like Frenck is using)

my cloud.yaml is looking like this:

---
# The Home Assistant Cloud allows you to quickly integrate your local
# Home Assistant with various cloud services like Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
#
# https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/cloud/
#
cloud:

  # Customize the Google Assistant integration with the Naby Casa Cloud
  google_actions:

    # Entity specific configuration for Google Assistant.
    # These are loaded from a separate directory.
    entity_config: !include_dir_merge_named ../assistants/google

    # Filters for entities to include/exclude from Google Assistant.
    # These are loaded from a separate directory.
    # many thanks to frenck for al the explaining online.
    filter:
      include_entities:
        - light.eetkemer_lg

and i have an eetkamer.yaml in the assistant folder witch looks like this:

---
# Entity configuration for Google Assistant.
#
# Use this to customize how the device shows up in Google Assistant.
#
# https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/google_assistant/#entity_config
#
light.eetkemer_lg:
  name: Lampen Eetkamer
  aliases:
    - eetkamerlampen
    - lampen eetkamer
    - verlichting eetkamer
    - eetkamer verlichting
    - dining room 
    - dining room lights
  room: Eetkamer

It is not perfect yet, but my google assistant turns on or off the lights dispite te language spoken.
i only noticed that when i say:ā€œhey google: turn on the dining room lightsā€ it responds with :" sure turning off eetkamer lampen"
witch sounds real funny(english speaking google try to do dutch) but was not what i intended to happen :wink:

2 Likes
14

What about just having multiple friendly names, where you append the iso2 language code?

friendly_name: Bedroom # default, required if translated value is provided too, used when there is no translated value for the user's language
friendly_name_nl: Slaapkamer # used if user's language = nl (Dutch)
firendly_name_es: Dormitorio # used if user's language = es (Spanish)

Iā€™m a developer by trade and am used to having all my devices in English, but for home assistant to be accepted / used by the rest of the family, a translation option would be very beneficial.

7 Likes
15

+1 for thisā€¦ even I know itĀ“s not just an ask for HomeAssistant but also on the Alexa world to correctly map each entity into the right language

16

How about creating multiple instances of the same dashboard, renaming instances in the card configuration, and enable the view to specific users? I know, itā€™s not a solution but a workaround.

17

+1 for true multilanguage labels / friendly names

1 Like
18

Iā€™m using quite a few instances of the custom:auto-entities card, where this is not really possibleā€¦

19

Hi noob here, not sure if relevant but I use helpers to create aliases of my groups in my local language.

20

I would really need an option to translate my entity names and not only have services and integrations translated. Maybe add language tag to aliases and use them for that?