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Comment by bazmattaz | Hacker News Reader

Don’t get me wrong I’m a big Home Assistant fan, I use it everyday for automations around the house but I just don’t see voice control as a necessity. I feel, and have always felt, that voice control is a gimmick. Do we really need to switch on lights or open the garage door with our voice? Is a switch really that hard to use?

Of course there are certain circumstances where voice control makes sense, e.g. for people with disabilities or people with their hands full (think cooking, painting…etc)

I would love to hear from HA users about how voice control solves immediate problems for them - particularly ones that a switch can’t solve

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Voice control is about the only way my wife and kids interact with hass (in spite of other options). I (re)wrote an app for interfacing with Alexa[0] while my son was a neonate because it made such a difference to be able to verbally turn off lights while both hands were full carrying him around (or sleeping on my chest and I don't want to move).

For me, voice control is a must.

[0]: https://github.com/n8henrie/fauxmo

I currently use Alexa, having played around with Rhasspy (project of the guy who they hired recently) before, and planning to give it another shot now that it's all in HA.

Getting dressed and quickly checking the weather on the way out. Not having to have switches in every corner of the room. Cooking and playing music, pausing it automatically when I need to ask what some cup-shit is in real units, all while I keep doing what I'm doing.

Yeah, I could do all of this in other ways, but it's just way more convenient to use voice.

I set up Google Home on my HA instance. The process is quite convoluted but extremely well documented. You must just accept to click, click, next etc. without understanding what you are doing.

I usually use my smart buttons but when I am in the living room and want to open the roller shutters in my children's rooms what it is noon and they are still in bed I have three choices:

1. go to their room and die because I will step on something and fall in the dark. I may also step on undefined things that should not be there. This is not a place I go to without a hazmat suit.

2. open my HA application on my ... phone which should be somewhere around or I may also go the computer which is nearby and .. ah, I have to log in, blah blah blah, it is now 13:00.

3. say "hey google open shutter michael", to which the Google Mini Lady yells (I do not know why she is yelling when she answers) "yes of course boss, I am doing it".

I may sometimes switch on the light in the living room instead because she will misunderstand but hey, it was quick.

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Do we really need to switch on lights or open the garage door with our voice? Is a switch really that hard to use?

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You don't have to be near the control pannel/open the app/whatever

Honestly turning off and on the lights from the bed is a fucking godsend (and choosing the % and color too)

And the music too but it's really hit or miss with certain song titles

I feel like i'm in a film and i can choose my soundtrack while i'm in my home.

Another thing was turning on and off the space heater and fan

Hands free operation is the obvious answer. When I come home in the evening to a dark home with a bunch of groceries in hand I can just speak an automation prompt and my home is suddenly well lit. When I’m cooking and my hands are gross I can change lighting or play music without worrying about contamination of surfaces. Etc.

It’s not essential but no home automation is

Home automation itself is a gimmick! I think most people get into this stuff because it's fun, not because light bulbs and thermostats are too hard.

I disagree. I love the convenience of not having to ever touch a light switch to turn on and off the lights. It is nice to be able to adjust the temp when in bed if it isn't right or even better have it just set it for you. I think we confuse a smart home with a connected home. A smart home just does the things for you so you don't have to do anything.

If I can have an additional way to interface with my home, then I see it as a win.

What I think holds the largest value to me, is to be able to extract information that you can't get from flicking a switch, or actively looking at a screen/tablet somewhere in the home. What's the weather? Can you start a timer for X minutes? How long is my commute today?

People with accessibility and mobility issues are the biggest winners in this. That, alone, makes it worth it.

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