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But navigating through the app to all of the various settings can be confusing at times. And Google also makes a separate “Google Assistant” app. These apps act as the central “hub” for controlling devices. You can create rooms, then manage all of the devices within each room. Another consideration when selecting voice assistant is your choice of video streaming device. The Apple HomePod speaker is the most limiting in terms of available music services.
The certainty of long-lasting device support that you get from other brands isn’t the same here. The biggest drawback to Aeotec’s smart hub is the uncertainty about SmartThings’ future. This hub connects with the widest range of brands and products without sacrificing a user-friendly interface.
Support
You can link other devices to it via the Apple HomeKit app and use the HomePod as a way to communicate with Siri. It only has internet and Bluetooth connectivity, so you won’t be able to control much with it. It does operate via the internet or Bluetooth, but security is a priority for Apple, so just because it’s on wifi doesn’t mean it’s easy to hack. Like the other major tech companies, Apple’s version is a speaker with a built-in microphone so you can easily access their virtual assistant, Siri.
In a sense, all future smart home purchases depend on this initial decision. Home Assistant also gives you a significantly higher degree of control over what you can do with your hardware. I keep an iPad around for casual browsing and listening to music over Apple Music Lossless. Apple Music on iOS, however, does not support the Chromecast protocol, making the litany of Google Nest speakers I’ve got strewn about redundant.
Configure the Smart Home Service Endpoint
There are tons of options, and each one seems to do something the others can’t. However, knowing your priorities and how you want to use your smart devices will lead you to the right product for you. Smart homes are an excellent addition when you have plenty of smart devices in your home. The lights and the lock on your door aren’t talking to each other; they both get instructions from the smart hub. It’s also a largely internet-based system, so as with the Google Nest Hub, you’ll need a powerful wifi router to avoid slowing down your home internet when you use your smart devices. It’s internet-based, so you may lose some function during an internet outage, but the range of automation and options that the app gives you is worth the risk of the occasional hiccup.
While the device is still currently supported, the fact that Samsung discontinued its proprietary hub means there could be future changes and shake-ups coming. However, without other Apple smart home products, the HomePod is essentially an expensive voice-activated speaker. The biggest drawback of the Home Assistant Blue is the difficulty of learning it. It’s not a simple plug-and-play system, and you’ll have to devote a lot of time to the initial setup. The other major pro for the Home Assistant Blue is the enormous breadth of options for complicated automation.
Are smart speakers the same as voice assistants?
I’m not sure why this isn’t a universal feature, but kudos to Apple for making it happen. We later added several Google Home Mini smart speakers. Periodically, Google would have a sale and sell them for $30. Occasionally we would even get a coupon code for a free Google Home Mini. So adding the skill is not necessary, just ask Alexa to discover devices once you have the emulated hue up and running. This works for me and discovers the devices as “Royal Philips Electronics Smart Device” in Alexa.
If you don’t have LONG_LIVED_ACCESS_TOKEN set, or you haven’t enabled DEBUG you will get a INVALID_AUTHORIZATION_CREDENTIAL response as the execution result. Expand the Change default execution role dropdown and make sure to select Use an existing role as Execution role, then select the role you just created from Existing role list. AFTER, account link as above, the Alexa app gose to discovery mode. @DennisGaida Thanks, I've added the debug line to the code.
You will see all your rooms and the devices in them in the Google Home app. Next, the app will show all the entities configured in your Home Assistant server. Click on the service account you just created and then click on the Keys tab. To set up or integrate the Google Assistant, you must expose your Home Assistant server to the internet with an SSL certificate.
Knowing which is the best for you starts with knowing what features you want. A backup power source is important, as it means you could keep elements of your smart home running in the event of a power outage. Aeotec Smart Hubs, the successor to Samsung’s popular SmartThings hubs, is the only brand that used to have a battery backup, so the lack of one in the newest model is curious. One drawback for all of these devices is the lack of a battery backup. Variety and flexibility are the defining features of this hub. The SmartThings platform and app are also intuitive to use and offer incredible customization options.
What really pushed me over the edge, however, was the extremely basic touch screen interface of smart displays. I invested in both the Google Assistant and Alexa ecosystems expecting touch-first controls for my connected devices. Instead, the ground reality is a touch interface tacked on to the existing voice-based assistant.
If the cover does not support tilt, all semantics “raise”, “lower”, “open”, “close” are assigned to the position functionality. Covers with the device_class of garage are shown as a Garage Door and support the Open by Voice PIN feature. FAN_ONLY is not supported by the Alexa voice model and is shown as OFF in the Alexa App. Image Processing entities also support this notification.
Part of the experience of controlling and managing a smart home is using the corresponding voice assistant app. There are a number of smart speakers that are compatible with both Alexa and Google Home. Google Assistant has a number of smart speaker options, but they’ve changed up their product line quite a bit over the years. A smart speaker with a built-in voice assistant seems to be the entry point into the smart home world for most people. One common point of comparison that I’ve seen used is how many times a particular voice assistant displays a website or search result page instead of answering the question directly.
If you haven’t already, I would recommend assigning it a static IP address in your router, because otherwise each time it is reassigned Alexa won’t be able to find your devices. Support for viewing and controlling devices with the Alexa mobile app. Activate scenes with scene name, or “turn on” utterance. Home Assistant does not support deactivate or “turn off” for scenes at this time. The fan device must support the preset_mode attribute. The fan device must support percentage based speeds with the percentage attribute.
Go ahead and add the following to your configuration.yaml file. Note that due to some recent updates, the port must be left set to 80. Then go to the devices list, and hit Discover Devices. It will take the full minute or so, and it will then find all of your new devices that you listed out in your configuration file. You will need to add the Philips Hue skill to Alexa if you don’t already have it added. Host_IP will be the internal IP address of your Home Assistant.
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