Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition: A Private Alternative to Alexa, Explained

What it is

Voice Preview Edition is the first voice speaker made by the Home Assistant team. It's built for Assist, Home Assistant's own voice assistant, so you can say "turn off the kitchen lights" or "set a timer for five minutes" without sending anything to Amazon, Google or Apple. Home Assistant launched it in December 2024. This guide is based on Home Assistant's published specs and documentation, checked in October 2026; Kotoh Home has no commercial relationship with Nabu Casa, which makes it.

The name is deliberate. Home Assistant calls it a "preview" because its voice assistant doesn't yet do everything big-tech assistants do, especially general questions and chit-chat. For controlling a home, it's ready now.

Specs and price

How it protects your privacy

The wake word is detected on the device

Like Alexa, the speaker listens constantly for its wake word. Unlike Alexa, what happens next is up to you. The wake word runs on the speaker itself using an engine called microWakeWord, and nothing is sent anywhere until it hears "Okay Nabu" or one of the other wake words.

A mute switch that cuts power

Home Assistant says the mute switch "physically cuts power to the microphones." That's stronger protection than a software mute, because the microphones have no power while it's off.

You choose where speech is processed

After the wake word, your speech has to be turned into text and understood. Home Assistant offers three ways to do that:

• Focused local processing: limited to a set list of common home-control phrases, so even low-powered hardware can handle it locally and offline. It can turn on a device, for example, but not add something to your shopping list.
• Full local processing: full speech recognition runs on your own hardware. This needs a more powerful computer for good speed and accuracy.
• Home Assistant Cloud: speech is processed on Nabu Casa's servers, which it describes as privacy-first. It's the most accurate option on low-powered hardware. It's part of Home Assistant Link, $6.50 a month or $65 a year.

How it compares to Alexa

Since March 28, 2025, every Echo request is processed in Amazon's cloud, with no local-only option. Our guide Is Alexa always listening? explains what that means and what smart speakers send.

What it's good at today

• Home control: lights, fans, covers, locks, thermostats and scenes, by room and by name.
• Timers and lists: timers, and shopping lists when speech recognition isn't in focused mode.
• Status questions: "What's the temperature?" or "Is the garage door open?"
• Music: plug it into a better speaker through the 3.5 mm jack, or play through your existing speakers.
• Many languages: Home Assistant lists dozens of supported languages, though local support varies by language.

What it doesn't do (yet)

Out of the box it won't answer trivia, tell the news or chat. Home Assistant's own launch post jokes that it won't make whale sounds or tell you how tall Taylor Swift is, yet. Those requests need an AI model.

Adding AI for natural conversation

Home Assistant can connect Voice Preview Edition to AI providers or to a local AI model, so you can speak naturally ("it's a bit dark in here") instead of in fixed commands. Its Ollama integration runs a model on a computer in your home. Home Assistant notes that smaller models are more likely to make mistakes when controlling the home, so the model and the list of devices it can touch need care.

That's the gap between a voice speaker and a private AI assistant. Our guide on local AI vs cloud assistants covers the choices, and what a private AI home assistant costs covers the budget.

Setting it up well

1. Have Home Assistant running, for example on a Home Assistant Green.
2. Plug in the speaker with USB-C. Home Assistant discovers it, and a wizard walks you through voice setup.
3. Pick a processing mode: focused local for privacy on modest hardware, full local if you have a stronger computer, or Home Assistant Cloud for accuracy.
4. Name rooms and devices clearly. Voice control depends on good names and areas, so "office lamp" works and "light.switch_3" doesn't.
5. Expose only what voice should control. You decide which devices Assist can see. Leave out anything you'd never want triggered by voice.

Placing speakers around the house

One speaker covers a room well, and its dual microphones and audio processor are designed to pick out your voice over music and background noise. For a whole house, plan one per main living space: kitchen, family room, primary bedroom and office are the usual starting points. Put each one out in the open, away from walls that muffle it and from loud appliances, at roughly the height people speak.

Because Home Assistant knows which room each speaker is in, a request like "turn off the lights" applies to that room. Timers ring on the speaker that set them. That room awareness is one reason to name your areas carefully during setup.

Other Assist hardware

Voice Preview Edition isn't the only way to talk to Assist. Home Assistant's voice documentation describes a Linux-based voice assistant that runs on x64 or ARM64 hardware, and its Wyoming protocol connects local speech-to-text and text-to-speech services, which is how full local processing typically runs on a more powerful computer. You can also talk to Assist from the Home Assistant app on a phone or watch. For a dedicated speaker, though, Voice Preview Edition is the simplest option, because it needs no flashing or assembly.

Keeping the old speakers

Many households keep an Echo or Nest speaker for music while moving home control to Assist. That's a reasonable middle step. Just remember that requests to those speakers still go to their companies' clouds.

Who it's for

Voice Preview Edition is a good fit if you want voice control of your home without a big-tech account, and you're happy with a focused assistant. If you want an assistant that understands natural requests, handles email and calendars, and can be texted from your phone, that takes an AI model and more setup.

It also suits homes with guests, staff or children. Anyone in the room can use it without an app or an account, the rotary dial makes volume obvious, and the LED ring shows when it's listening, so nobody has to wonder whether it heard them.

Where Kotoh Home fits

Kotoh Home builds on hardware like Voice Preview Edition to install a private AI home assistant. With Private Cloud (from $4,995), an open-source AI model runs on a private server Kotoh operates for you. With Private Home (from $24,995), it runs on a computer in your house and nothing leaves. Either way, it's never a big AI company's model, and the home's rules keep running if the internet drops.