Home Assistant Voice (Preview Edition) – Privacy-friendly Smart Speaker

Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition: Control your home without eavesdropping tech giants

Do you want to control your smart home with your voice, but absolutely don't want big tech companies listening in? The Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition is the official, privacy-friendly smart speaker from Nabu Casa. This compact device is specially designed to process voice commands locally or via a secure connection. This ensures that what is discussed in your home truly stays in your home.

The main advantages at a glance:

• Maximum privacy & physical mute button: No unwanted cloud recordings. Do you want the speaker to not listen at all temporarily? The physical mute switch hardware-disables the microphones.
• Advanced dual-microphones: Thanks to the dual microphones with built-in noise and echo cancellation, the Voice PE understands you perfectly, even if there's music playing in the background or people are talking in the room.
• Local or cloud processing (You choose): You can choose to have your voice commands processed entirely locally on your own Home Assistant server, or lightning-fast via the secure Home Assistant Cloud.
• Fully open-source & hackable: The Voice PE runs on open-source software and features a built-in Grove port. This makes the speaker a dream for tinkerers who want to easily add extra sensors or hardware.
• Visual feedback & analog buttons: The built-in RGB LED ring provides subtle visual feedback when the assistant is listening or thinking. The physical rotary knob quickly adjusts the volume or brightness.

What about the Dutch language?

The Home Assistant Voice is designed to be extremely flexible. For the Dutch language, the speaker works as follows:

• Via Home Assistant Cloud (Recommended): With an active Nabu Casa subscription, Dutch works directly out-of-the-box and the speaker responds very quickly. The heavy speech-to-text calculations are then done securely and quickly in the cloud.
• Fully local (For advanced users): Local speech recognition in English works directly. Do you want to run Dutch completely locally without the cloud? That's certainly possible! However, this requires the necessary processing power for the local speech pipelines (Whisper and Piper):
  • Our Home Assistant Green can handle this locally, though you should expect a small processing time of a few seconds per voice command.
  • Do you want an instant, lightning-fast local response without any delay? Then choose one of our powerful Home Assistant Servers. These Mini-PCs are true powerhouses and have more than enough processing power to handle local speech processing in Dutch fluidly and instantly.

Please note: The built-in 3W speaker is optimized for clear voice feedback and responses from your assistant. Do you want to play music through this speaker? Then connect an external loudspeaker via the built-in 3.5mm jack output.

Ready to get started?

To use the Voice PE, you need a central controller. Don't have one yet? The speaker works perfectly with the Home Assistant Green. Also check out our complete collection of Home Assistant Servers to complete your setup.

Important to know: The speaker is powered via USB-C, but no USB-C cable or USB power adapter is included in the box. Make sure you have a standard 5V USB-A to USB-C cable and an adapter (minimum 1A) ready, or order them directly.

Smart scenarios in practice: What can you do with it?

Thanks to its deep integration with Home Assistant, the Voice PE is much more than a passive speaker that just waits for a command. You can actively make it part of your daily routines and even let it speak proactively. A few inspiring examples:

• The proactive welcome assistant: Do you come home at the end of the day and no one else is home? Let Home Assistant detect this via your phone or a door sensor and have the Voice PE greet you with an active question: "Welcome home! It's already getting dark, shall I close the blinds and turn on the mood lighting?". You just have to answer "Yes" to start the automation.
• Your ultimate morning routine: Simply say "Good morning" to the speaker. Home Assistant immediately opens the blinds, turns on the espresso machine, and the Voice PE immediately tells you what today's weather will be like and if there's traffic on your route to work.
• Play music (with your voice): Although the internal speaker of the Voice PE is optimized for speech, voice control for audio is unlimited. Simply say: "Play my favorite playlist in the living room" and Home Assistant will start the music directly on your Sonos, Bluesound, or HEOS system. Do you want to use the Voice PE itself as a music source? Then connect a set of active loudspeakers to the 3.5mm jack output.

Technical specifications

Package contents

• 1x Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition
• 1x Quick Start Guide (English)

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this speaker also work with Homey or other hubs?

No, the Home Assistant Voice is specifically and exclusively designed to work with Home Assistant. Other smart home systems are not supported.

Do I necessarily need a paid subscription?

No, a Nabu Casa subscription is not mandatory. If you speak English, or if you have the technical knowledge to set up a local Dutch speech pipeline on your own Home Assistant server, its use is completely free. However, for plug-and-play Dutch voice control, we highly recommend the Home Assistant Cloud (Nabu Casa).

Is the installation complicated?

Not at all! As soon as you power on the speaker, a handy setup wizard will appear in your Home Assistant dashboard. Within a few minutes, the speaker will be connected to your Wi-Fi network and ready for use.

✅ slimhuisje.nl | Your official Home Assistant specialist. Order today and start with privacy-friendly voice control!