It would be very cool if we could trigger a “Hey Google” state from home assistant. I have several automations that welcome people home, to be able to leave the speaker in this state after a question would open up a world of possibilities. An example would be, when I come home it closes the blinds in the bedroom, but if I can get it to say, “welcome home, what can I do?” then leave that speaker in listening mode, I can then say close the blonds in bedroom, if that is what is needed.
I could be wrong but I doubt this is available from the Google Home API for privacy reasons.
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You’re not wrong Tom. Alexa can’t do it either for the same reason. I doubt any voice assistant will allow remote trigger of a open mic for obvious reasons.
And if they ever do, I throw mine in the trash. It is 100% a privacy issue.
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I understand what you are saying but why is it a privacy issue, at the moment anyone can scream Alexa or hey google at your door if your out and get one in range to trigger? Locks need a code. Maybe I am missing something?
You are missing that this could be enabled discretely and remotely.
If you’re willing to go “the extra mile”, you could look into something like this: Alexa and Siri Can Hear This Hidden Command. You Can’t. - The New York Times
You would have to prepare a short piece of music that is nice for you to hear when you come home, and which has the “hey google” kind-of embedded. This then needs to get triggered/played when you come home. For everyone else it’s just a “ah, music when I come in”, for you it’s the “okay, the smart speaker is listening now” hint.
Interesting article
What would be awesome, and I’m assuming is coming, is HA to utilize wake-words and ESP device(s) to listen 100% locally.
+1 for the tinkerers that ‘hack’ Google/Echo devices to embed these ESP chips to re-platform from Google/Amazon directly to HA. I’d 100% leave Google Assistant (which keeps getting worse) and go 100% local using HA.
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I am with you on that one Markus, I would love to go all HA, and we are going to have to find a way around these issues if we are going to get to the stage where we can have responses from actions. I am convinced it will get there eventually.
The cloud controlled mic is simple. You don’t ever want something to be able to open a mic remotely and you always want the mute button to be hardware - not override-able through a command
But I get what you’re saying. There are other ways. Alexa’s API for instance absolutely let’s you ‘send’ a custom command containing what you would have sent.
Between this and the fact that the mic can be opened after by an active skill, it should satisfy nearly all potential use cases where you would have wanted an ‘open mic’ without the risks. I use it with Alexa actionable notifications to have entire conversations with ‘Madame A’ all the time
You do NOT want something to be able to open that mic without local wake word. I don’t want to be listened to unless I know it’s happening…
Now I realize that this is Alexa, not Google. Press Google for the capability, (sorry I’m not a Google Assistant dev person so I don’t know if they’re already working it.) or if similar capability exists. Get someone to implement it.
@Markus99 as far as I understand. That’s exactly what chapter three, year of the voice is targeting. Wake word on local device. Will indeed be nice to keep most voice local.
Thank you Nathan for such a concise reply, I get exactly what you are saying.