Home Automation System - Welcome to our new voice assistant

It's time to explore new interesting "things" to simplify our daily life; ok, this is the official excuse...the real reason for that is to have fun

Let's try the voice integration in OpenHAB to control home device with voice.

As far as I know, I have two alternatives: Amazon Alexa or Google Home. I'm an Android fan, so I chose Google Home. another good reason for that is the native integration in OpenHAB.

So, I bought Google Home Mini and Google Chromecast (there was a special buying them together)

I think Google Chromecast  is well known to everybody, let me only say that OpenHAB integration will be possible. In a future post I'll describe it.

So, let's speak about Google Home. The main difference between mini and standard is the audio quality; the voice assistant is the same in both devices. They are both elegant and easily integrable in every room. For good reviews please check Google and Youtube

Ok, let's install my new toy, following an easy procedure with the Google Home App for Android and iOS; an useful thing it that it can be integrated in many google services as Calendar, Reminder and so on...

Here is it:

Google Home App is a complete software to control a lot of smart devices...I will use it only as bridge for OpenHAB.

Let me check:

Ok Google, please tell me a joke

Ok Google, please play some classical music

A nice feature is the native integration with audio and video streaming services, like Youtube Music, Spotify, Youtube videos, Netflix and so on...just ask google home to play music or videos...you can also setup default video and audio output, for SMART TV and audio amplifiers. I will use Google Chromecast as default TV output and a standard BOSE bluetooth audio speaker as default audio output.

I will play a lot with google home and then I will be ready to integrate it in my OpenHAB System.

Stay tuned